US Houses Using More Russian Lumber, As US-Canada Spat Continues

One of the biggest winners from the trade dispute between Canada and the U.S. over lumber looks to be Russia.The U.S. is importing more softwood lumber from overseas after it imposed tariffs on Canadian supplies, making them more expensive. Russian shipments are 42% higher so far in 2017, according to government data.Though Russia accounts for a relatively small proportion of the total -- European countries including Germany and Sweden are among the biggest suppliers to the U.S. -- the shift in volumes shows how a political spat has quickly altered the flow of international trade."It seems to be that there's something illogical that we're not buying the lumber from our neighbors to the north, that we're buying it from the Russians," said Jerry Howard, chief executive officer of the National Association of Home Builders. "That's sort of the looking glass that we've gone through and that's what the market is forcing us to do now." The dispute has increased material costs for house builders in the U.S. by 20 percent, according to Howard.The trade in softwood lumber between the U.S. and Canada has been an intermittent source of trade tensions for years, but maters escalated in April when the Trump administration set countervailing duties of up to 24% on Canadian imports. Additional duties of as much as 7.7% followed in June.