Trump sets 10% tariff on lumber imports, 25% on cabinets and furniture

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was slapping 10% tariffs on imported timber and lumber and 25% duties on imported kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and upholstered furniture, continuing his tariff assault on global trading partners, Report informs via Reuters.

Trump signed a presidential proclamation, laying out his argument that timber, lumber and furniture imports are eroding US national security to justify the new duties under Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1974.

The proclamation said the tariff rates would start on October 14, but added that duties will increase on January 1 to 30% for upholstered wooden products and to 50% for kitchen cabinets and vanities imported from countries that fail to reach an agreement with the United States.

The action is the first in three sectors that Trump said last week would get steep new duties as early as October 1, including patented pharmaceutical imports, and heavy truck imports. But Monday's proclamation sets the start of the lumber and furniture duties two weeks later, at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) on October 14.

Trump's proclamation said wood product imports are weakening the US. economy, resulting in the persistent threats of closures of wood mills and disruptions of wood product supply chains and diminishing utilization of the US domestic wood industry.

"Because of the state of the United States wood industry, the United States may be unable to meet demands for wood products that are crucial to the national defense and critical infrastructure," the statement said.

The order added that wood products are used for "building infrastructure for operational testing, housing and storage for personnel and materiel, transporting munitions, as an ingredient in munitions, and as a component in missile-defense systems and thermal-protection systems for nuclear-reentry vehicles."

The action heaps more tariffs on Canada, the biggest softwood lumber supplier to the US, where producers already face combined US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs of about 35% due to a long-festering dispute over timber harvested from Canadian public lands.

Canada, which hopes to negotiate US tariff reductions through a broader revamp of the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada agreement on trade, has said it would provide up to C$1.2 billion ($870 million) in aid to its softwood lumber producers to cope with the prior duties.

Mexico and Vietnam are growing suppliers of wooden furniture to the US after Trump hit Chinese furniture products with tariffs of up to 25% during his first term starting in 2018 - duties which have since been raised to about 55% and now could nearly double for cabinets and vanities.