In the 90's I was working buying logs for a family owned sawmill. The Canadian's were beating our socks off with their prices on lumber delivered to the US. The lumber organization got a few lobbyist to get a law passed to help out. The wording of the agreement had a big old loophole in it. They drilled a 1/32nd inch hole near the end of the boards and shipped them as being a finished product, internet hole, and didn't miss a beat. You couldn't hardly see the little hole.
The Canadian sawmills get their logs off of government (Crown) land for basically free cost. They have one sawmill, Canfor, that can cut 600 million feet of lumber in a year, Graceville Lumber is one of the biggest around here and it might get 1 million feet in a week, sometimes.. They had a 1300 mile long by 400 mile wide bug kill they were working on then and they were whacking and stacking 24/7. I wouldn't hold my breath on the US lumber producers and the loggers getting much help.
That explains our problem very well. The American forest industry is competing against a Canadian industry that pays no stumpage value so that their citizens can have jobs. That doesn't seem like free trade to me, but in almost every industry we are playing by a different set of rules than our competitors.
Trump campaigned on leveling the playing floor; glad to see he is at least trying to do what he said. I doubt it helps the southern forest industry. 20% isn't enough to matter that much.
