President Trump Orders Lumber-Centric Actions

On Saturday, March 1, President Trump signed two executive orders regarding lumber production in the U.S. 

One titled “Addressing the threat to national security from imports of timber, lumber” laid out plans to “ensure reliable, secure, and resilient domestic supply chains of timber, lumber, and their derivative products.” 

To do so, the order tasks Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick with producing an investigation under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act to “determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber, and their derivative products.”

The investigation seeks to provide clarity on:

• The current and projected demand for timber and lumber in the United States.
• The extent to which domestic production of timber and lumber can meet domestic demand
• The role of foreign supply chains, particularly of major exporters, in meeting United States timber and lumber demand.
• The impact of foreign government subsidies and predatory trade practices on United States timber, lumber, and derivative product industry competitiveness.
• The feasibility of increasing domestic timber and lumber capacity to reduce imports.
• The impact of current trade policies on domestic timber, lumber, and derivative product production, and whether additional measures, including tariffs or quotas, are necessary to protect national security.

The Secretary of Commerce has 270 days to produce a report that includes:

• Findings on whether imports of timber, lumber, and their derivative products threaten national security.
• Recommendations on actions to mitigate such threats, including potential tariffs, export controls, or incentives to increase domestic production.
• Policy recommendations for strengthening the United States timber and lumber supply chain through strategic investments and permitting reforms.

President Trump has voiced a plan to place a 25% tariff on Canadian lumber on top of the 14.5% duty rate already in place.

‘Facilitating increased production’

The other lumber-centric executive order issued on March 1, titled “Immediate expansion of American timber,” seeks to slash red tape and other regulatory bottlenecks in an effort to speed up timber production.

Within 30 days: 

“The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Chief of the United States Forest Service (USFS), respectively, shall each issue new or updated guidance regarding tools to facilitate increased timber production and sound forest management, reduce time to deliver timber, and decrease timber supply uncertainty.”

The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture are also being tasked to submit legislative proposals that would “expand authorities to improve timber production and sound forest management.”

Within 60 days, the group must “complete a strategy on … forest management projects under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1536) to improve the speed of approving forestry projects.”

The president also wants to see “streamlined permitting:”

“All relevant agencies shall eliminate, to the maximum extent permissible by law, all undue delays within their respective permitting processes related to timber production.  Additionally, all relevant agencies shall take all necessary and appropriate steps consistent with applicable law to suspend, revise, or rescind all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders, and other agency actions that impose an undue burden on timber production.”