#United States #Washington #U.S. Lumber Coalition #Softwood Lumber #Chris Matthews

U.S. Lumber Coalition's Rebuttal to Chris Matthews on Softwood Lumber Issue

In a recent episode of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," commentator Chris Matthews asserted that the United States lacks the capacity to produce sufficient lumber to replace unfairly traded imports. This statement has drawn sharp criticism from the U.S. Lumber Coalition, which argues that such remarks misrepresent the state of the American lumber industry and undermine efforts to enforce trade laws that protect U.S. jobs and the domestic market.

Andrew Miller, the Chair and Owner of Stimson Lumber Company, expressed his disappointment, stating that Matthews' comments exemplified a media bias against the trade law enforcement actions taken during President Trump's administration. Miller emphasized that the misinformation propagated by Canadian interests not only attacks American policy but also seeks to preserve an unjust market share for Canadian lumber that is alleged to be unfairly subsidized.

Zoltan van Heyningen, Executive Director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition, echoed these sentiments by challenging the narratives pushed by Matthews, Canada, and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). He provided some startling statistics: since the imposition of duties on Canadian softwood lumber in 2016, the capacity of the U.S. softwood lumber industry has increased significantly—by an impressive 9.2 billion board feet. This spike has allowed the industry to produce an additional 30 billion board feet to meet domestic demands, most notably amid claims of overcapacity within Canada's lumber sector.

Further arguing the point, van Heyningen noted that Canada's excess capacity stands at approximately 8.7 billion board feet and implied that this surplus is being