U.S. lumber wholesaler squeezed by Trump tariffs on Canadian softwood imports

WASHINGTON, D.C. – For Martin Wiegand, Canadian softwood lumber is the “champagne” of wood.

His family lumber business dates back to the 1800s in Washington, D.C., employing about a dozen people. Wiegand has relied on Canadian Western red cedar, a high-end lumber, for years. In fact, more than half of his business deals with selling Canadian softwood to customers to build fences, pergolas, decking and siding.

“Western red cedar is a beautiful wood. It’s rot-resistant, so it works great outside, it machines well and (is) probably the best wood for exterior architectural products,” Wiegand told CTV News, adding that it’s a reliable product for American builders.

But U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are raising the price of the basic 2x4 wooden plank, making it difficult to plan how expensive inventory will be or how much his business can afford to buy.

“So, it lengthens the lead time for our customers and in their projects and ordering, so it makes it a little more difficult,” he said. “Our crystal ball is not that clear. It’s sort of cloudy.”

Trump is not the first U.S. president to impose steep duties on Canadian lumber. Trade lawyers on both sides of the border have battled over anti-dumping and countervailing duties for decades. But Trump slapped a 10 per cent tariff on softwood lumber and timber last year under Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

And when the price of a truckload of Canadian lumber rises, so does the price of a 2x4.

CTV News asked Wiegand to calculate what he was paying before and after. Pulling out a pocket calculator, he said that 2x4 was around US$9.50 before, but with Trump’s new tariffs, that same piece of red cedar costs about US$16.

“My message to Donald Trump is: Stop this. Stop. Stop the tariffs,” Wiegand said. “I would say they’re inappropriate and unproductive. I don’t think they’re creating American jobs or helping the economy at all.”

Wiegand added that there is no substitute for Western red cedar.

“There’s no American sawmill jumping in and starting to produce Western reds,” Wiegand said. While he reads in the trade journals about sawmills shutting down, he says that so far, “none of our main supplies have closed.”

“So, knock on wood we’re still hanging in.”