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Forestry industry pushes back on Trump blaming fires on Canadian lumber imports

Forestry industry pushes back on Trump blaming fires on lumber imports
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Forestry industry pushes back on Trump blaming fires on lumber imports

Canada’s forestry industry is pushing back against comments by U.S. President Trump that lumber imports are partially to blame for intense forest fires in California.

Trump said a at cabinet meeting Thursday that the U.S. should harvest fallen trees from the forest floor, which he says are making fires worse, rather than import wood when “Canada is charging us a lot of money to bring their timber down into our country.”

The comments were troubling and a bit ridiculous, said Forest Products Association of Canada CEO Derek Nighbor.

“At a number of levels the president’s comments are just really off-base yet again.”

Lumber prices are higher in the U.S. because of the tariffs Trump has imposed on Canadian imports, said Nighbor.

“It’s his tariff regime that’s really provided a 20 per cent hike to consumer prices in the U.S. on softwood lumber.”