Why would the U.S. need Canadian lumber in the first place ??
Well, here’s what old “Yellow Hair” over at the WH didn’t tell you.
Most American home builders will always choose Canadian lumber over American lumber. Colder Canadian arboreal forests grow much slower than American forests. Therefore, their growth rings are smaller, tighter and make Northern Canadian trees much stronger. That’s why. And now you have all those wild-fires destroying America’s softwood forests exacerbating the whole damn thing.
So. Canadian lumber is wanted throughout the world. Canada would be better off selling ALL its lumber to China. China, unless you’ve been living in a cave or America (and it appears you have), wants to buy ALL Canadian lumber at MARKET PRICE !!!! That’s a big incentive to get Canadian lumber out there. Canada subsidizes its lumber to the U.S. because the U.S. is Canada’s greatest customer. Subsidizing the U.S. market is considered by Canada as “Customer Appreciation Day”. It’s actually a good business tactic. Canada is rewarding its best customer.
But China wants to replace the U.S. as Canada’s number one Trading Partner. Old “Yellow Hair” in the WH sees the writing on the wall and doesn’t want to compete with China. So the tariffs were totally made up to “Defend the U.S.A.” from unfair Trade practices by China. In other words, China doesn’t care to be subsidized. She’ll buy Canadian lumber at MARKET PRICE. This, the U.S. cannot compete with. It needs to be subsidized. But why ??
Because China holds over a Trillion $ U.S. debt. Where is she going to spend that Trillion $ USD ??
Why, Canada, of course. China gets those $ USD just from the interest on that USD Trillion $ debt. Imagine ! Americans (through their taxes) are paying China the interest on that debt. That Interest is now being waved in front of Canada, by China, paid for by American taxpayers.
That’s why China isn’t interested in subsidization. ALL of Canada’s lumber could be shipped to China while being paid by American taxpayers. This time however, Americans get none of the lumber. It ALL goes to China. And the Americans just keep paying. So. Canada is in a great WIN – WIN situation.
And that’s the reason old “Yellow Hair” in the WH calls Canadian “Art of the Dealers” nasty, nasty people. The American President cannot just stand up and say “The USA made a shitty deal with China about taking on part of our debt. Now our $ USD are going to China to “BUY CANADIAN”. No. No. He can’t say that publicly. So he blamed Americans. The TARIFFS were dragged out to blame Americans for buying Canadian lumber. What a rotten S.O.B. to do that to American industry leaders.
Canada ?? Don’t worry about her. She’s flying high. She’s just been released from a bad deal with the U.S. In fact, China wants to buy ALL of Canada’s crude oil as well. I’m willing to bet China will be more than happy to help build that infrastructure in Canada for both her hard lumber and petroleum.
Why not ?!? You paid for it!
Well, first off, Canadian lumber is not subsidized. The US has claimed it is subsidized a bunch of times and EVERY SINGLE TIME the World Trade Organization found that there is no subsidy.
Second, if the US decides to shoot itself in the foot by putting tariffs on our lumber, what makes you think we would have no one to export timber to. I know Americans can be very inward focused, but you do realize there are other countries in the world, right? Anyway we would aggressively pursue other markets around the world.
Today I shall be buying 4 3.4m 4″x2″ lengths of timber for a stud frame, as you can see from the schizophrenic measurements I am in the UK. The timber I am going to be using is Cls.
Cls = Canadian lumber stock, from Canada. So it’s worth Canada shipping timber across the sea to Europe, and that’s because they actually get a better price from European countries than from the US, although apparently the special lower rate that America has always received from Canada is no longer going to be given.
So Americans are going to actually pay the full going rate for timber.
