Tariff impact to be seen

NEGAUNEE–We may see some changes due to a new tariff added by President Trump’s administration on lumber from our northern neighbor.

The President recently announced a new tariff of between 4 and 24 percent on Canadian softwood. With this new tariff, we could see an increase in lumber products including new homes.

According to a press release from President of the Michigan Homebuilders Association around 30 percent of softwood lumber used in homebuilding is from Canada. However, according to a local lumber company, we can’t yet tell how much of an impact the tariff could have.

“As of right now it hasn’t necessarily effected business I know I’ve talked to a few distributers of ours and they’re still kind of holding tight to their prices and everything,” said Jeremy Hurtzel of Cattron’s Lumber. “We haven’t had a lot of increases I would have to assume that there will be in the future. I know the building markets still strong, but yeah, as far as that goes it hasn’t really affected us yet.”

Hartsell said that there was a seven percent increase in the building industry last year and it’s expected to increase eight percent this year. He also said that a lot of softwood is harvested in the area and the tariff could translate into additional jobs.