The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Jan. 12, edition that president-elect
Donald Trump will come to office less
beholden to special interest
groups. The Globe's guest columnist Naomi Christensen writes that it would be a mistake to
assume Mr. Trump will automatically be
in the camp of the U.S. Lumber
Coalition, which wants to impose tariffs on U.S. imports of
Canadian lumber. Mr. Trump's
power base of voters includes
those who will be most negatively
affected by this action. The move
would boost the price of homes, but
also lead to lost jobs and wages.
There is only one real reason
behind the U.S. Lumber Coalition's
move to place
duties on Canadian softwood
lumber -- to raise the price of
lumber. Yet, while the U.S. domestic
industry benefits from
higher profits, U.S. consumers
lose out. This is clear by looking
at the effects of the duties prescribed
by the recently expired
Softwood Lumber Agreement.
Higher lumber and therefore
housing prices will make home ownership less attainable, jobs will be lost in
the construction and related sectors,
and it will make it that
much harder for Mr. Trump to
fulfill his promise to increase
GDP growth to 4 per cent.
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