New tariffs were announced on imported wood and lumber products, with related import taxes set to go into effect on October 14, 2025.
The new taxes will apply to softwood timber and lumber products, as well as upholstered wooden furniture, kitchen cabinets, and vanities.
The tariff rate has been set to 10% on lumber, and 25% on imported kitchen cabinets, vanities, and upholstered wooden furniture.
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Wood products imported from Japan and the European Union will be taxed at 15%, and the tax on wood imports from the UK “will not exceed 10%.”
Starting on January 1, 2026, the tariffs on upholstered furniture will be increasing from 25% to 30%, and on kitchen cabinets and vanities from 25% to 50%.
From what I’ve read, the 10% global tariff rate on softwood lumber will be tacked on top of new tariffs imposed on wood from Canada, which recently increased to 35%, bringing the total rate to around 45%.
Organizations such as the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) have cautioned that domestic production will not be able to meet consumption demand for several years.
They also said that the US imports around a third of its softwood lumber, and that nearly 85% of this comes from Canada. This implies that roughly 28% of the softwood lumber consumed by various US industries – including homebuilding and possibly furniture – will be hit by the 45% import tax.
Home Depot and Lowe’s, which carry imported lumber as well as wood and wood product kitchen cabinets and vanities, have not yet issued statements about the matter.
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NOTE: Please keep the comments section civil. We can talk about policies, but please avoid politics.
Update: Comments are now closed, because the moderation queue was filling with too many off-topic rants and political diatribes.
Casey
Hopefully increased local demand for wood will decrease the amount of wood we ship overseas in the form of wood pellets. We ship over 10 million metric tons of wood pellets to Europe every year to be burned as fuel because burning wood is considered “renewable” and serves as a loophole to get around European clean energy mandates. And we are clear cutting forests with trees that are perfectly useable for lumber. I can’t get a clear answer as to how much wood we import from Canada compared to the amount we export to Europe because every source measures the two differently, but I imagine it would help our local supply significantly if we did not export wood. Perhaps Canada could export their excess lumber to Europe now compared to selling it to the US.
potato
Just from the name wood pellets I would have assumed this is off cuts or waste not necessarily prime lumber turned into pellets but I really don’t know anything about the industry, so you’re saying it is in fact prime lumber that is being used for this and also it’s more profitable to create wood pellets than to use them for building materials?
Stuart
From what I’ve read, wood pellets are made from low-grade wood fiber and forestry residues.
Canadian lumber is delivered to the USA via truck or rail. I don’t think “maybe they can export excess lumber to Europe” is realistic.
Tecklar
Wood is a commodity, if they raise the tariff on Canada lumber 10% then the Americian lumber will go up by 10%. A business in a commodities market will sell it based on the price the competition is selling it for, doesn’t matter the cost to produce. A tarrif is simply a tax on the end user. It has for the past 20yrs been sold on the stock market. So a 2×4 will cost you 3 in Canada will cost you 4.35 cents here
Jay bar blaze
Dang I feel like wood is quite expensive and hasn’t really come down too much after the COVID hit. I was looking to make a Jay bates miter saw station but 12 sheets of 3/4 purebond is like $80+ where I’m at
Steve
$80 for all 12 sheets?
S
Per sheet.
Bonnie
Yep, between reduced domestic supply and the dry-up of Russian Birch it’s already stupidly expensive and these ill-considered tariffs won’t help.
S
There’s been a lot of lumber train cars passing through my indiana town heading south, except they’re empty. Which is an extremely rare sight.
Most common building lumber is imported from Canada. I always understood that the US doesn’t have the pine tree forests to support our home building needs.
So I’m a little surprised at the news, as it means new and replacement housing prices are going to climb even higher than the astronomical height’s they’re already at…
Jim Felt
Yes.
Jack D
I’ve been buying more and more of my lumber from a local lumber yard. I started for the hardwoods, but the softwoods are just as high quality. Of course, the box stores have the convenience factor, but the quality is terrible…
I shrug at news like this, because we had a big price spike during the lockdown that barely subsided in the years since, and this one will no doubt do the same. I have no doubt that we’ll be able to shift to domestic sources on short order. but let’s face it: does anyone think prices will ever fall? Tarrifs are just another excuse to jack em up…
Mike
Except in this case, the price increases will slow work. During the pandemic, there was a LOT of roofing and home improvement projects going on, damn the price (my house was one) because the work was outside and we were all working from home. Those factors are gone now, and this is going to affect homebuilding, and already nobody builds starter homes for new families because there’s not enough money in it.
MC703
In this midst of a housing availability / affordability crisis this should not even be on the table.
Trump is also working to open up large areas of national forests so “Canada stops taking advantage of us”.
Good faith actors can reasonably debate national forest timber policy but this all feels like a big giveaway to big lumber / mineral interests while the owners of public land -you and me- will not see any benefit aside from maybe slightly cheaper 2x4s a few years from now once the infrastructure and harvesting capacity is stood up.
Mister Mike
For several years I’ve been recording origin labels on wood products at the Big Box lumber yards. Recently I noticed HD had very clear pine that resembles Western Ponderosa Pine but the stamp had New Zealand. Across the isle was glued up pine shelving boards from Latvia. Other lumber came from Chile, Sweden, and “Baltic States.” I don’t think American lumber suppliers are capable of meeting the demand or current prices of foreign timber products. If this bizarre tariff war continues everyone will be forced to pay up or do without.
Stuart
I have also noticed that the premium 1x and 2×2 clear whitewood boards come from New Zealand. Those boards are pricey already, but great for certain projects.
Frank D.
And, … we still have people who need to rebuild and refurnish from tropical storms & all the flooding last year. Now another stupid tariff hike, on top of everything else that already went before it. Just as it seemed like lumber prices had come down some, post covid.
I don’t even want to think what the new kitchen and appliances are going to cost now, as we were waiting to rebuild it until this hurricane season is fully over.