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  • From: Walter H.Jeffries <Highlands AT blacklightning.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Homebuilders nightmare, Big Timber dream - Not
  • Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 19:23:59 -0400

On Sep 1, 2004, at 9:41 PM, Tvoivozhd wrote:
For Bush, turning National Forests over to State thieves isn't enough---has to sweeten the pot for Big Timber by a 27.5 percent import duty on Canadian lumber---adding $2000 to the cost of building each house in the U.S..

It is not as simple and easy as you present. I'm in the timber industry, although not 'Big Timber' - we only have about 1,000 acres. We do sustainable logging on our land, that's private land, without government subsidy. On the other hand, the Canadian government subsidizes their industry considerably. In addition to subsidizing the harvesting of the trees the Canadian government has put a lot of money into updating the private mills.

The cost of updating mills is so high and the market has been so volatile that small mills, which is primarily what exists within trucking distance of us, can't afford the cost to upgrade. The Canadian government's subsidy to their industry made it so they are now more competitive. This has helped the Canadian mills and put a lot of mills in the USA out of business. In part, because of that we have to now ship our logs further, be it in the USA or elsewhere.

Now here is the irony, we produce primarily high grade maple from our forest, without government subsidy, and much of it ships north TO Canada as well as to points as far away as Japan. Why would it ever ship TO Canada you ask? Because their mills have finer cutting blades and can make better use of the wood with less waste. This is because they had hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies from the Canadian government to update their mills. It is then reimported back into the USA for use in furniture making, cabinetry, etc or sent to Japan and points East as veneer for knickknack boxes and other fancy trinkets.

There is a good reason for there to be an import duty on Canadian lumber, it is because the government paid for the upgrading of the mills, the buildings of the roads, reduced lumber taxes, etc. If this will equalize it a bit and make it so that more lumber comes, sustainabily, from our own forests and is cut by our own mills who are then able to compete with the subsidized Canadian mills then that is good. That is what import duties should do - They correct imbalances.

It isn't quite as simple as you present it and it's not all 'Big Timber'.

Cheers,

-Walter
West Topsham, Vermont
---
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