Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Saturday to launch an investigation into the impact of lumber imports on America’s national security, a move that could lead to a new tariff imposition. Trump directed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to initiate the probe, as his administration claims the United States’ lumber industry has been undermined by cheap imports from Canada, Germany, Brazil and others, putting American lumber mills out of business and workers out of jobs.
According to Yonhap News Agency, a White House official mentioned South Korea and China as he stressed the probe will also look into derivative products, including kitchen cabinets. It is to proceed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that allows the president to impose import restrictions if an import threatens to hurt national security.
Along with the memo, Trump inked an executive order designed to increase domestic timber production and help reduce construction and housing costs in the U.S. “Our di
sastrous timber and lumber policies, the legacy of the previous administration, trigger wildfires and degrade our fish and wildlife habitats,” the official told reporters in a telephonic press briefing.
“They drive up construction and housing costs, and impoverish America through large trade deficits that result from exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil dumping lumber into our markets at the expense of both our economic prosperity and national security,” the official added.
The official underscored that the administration is also zeroing in on ramifications from derivative products. “We have situations, for example, where we’re exporting our logs, and they’re coming back from China in particular, and South Korea does this too … very heavily subsidized things like kitchen cabinets and the like,” he said.
Asked why lumber imports pose a threat to national security, the official said that the Pentagon is a major consumer of lumber and derivative products. “The whole issue of having a reliable source is
critical. If you look at kind of the military needs, we are not building, obviously, aircraft with it, but we are certainly building all the ancillary structures that the military needs,” he said.
“And it’s simply a danger to this country to get increasingly dependent on a foreign supply chain or a product that we could be almost self-sufficient in,” he added.
The latest action came after Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to investigate how copper imports threaten America’s national security and economic stability, in a move that could lead to the imposition of new tariffs on the metal used to produce aircraft, vehicles, ships and other military hardware.