The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) joined Supply-Build Canada in Washington last week for more than half a dozen Capitol Hill meetings focused on the North American softwood lumber market.
The meetings were meant to help lawmakers and their staff understand how Canadian spruce-pine-fir (SPF) differs from southern yellow pine (SYP) produced in the United States.
Both species play important roles in residential construction. Still, differences in their characteristics, where they are available and which one a market prefers mean one cannot always replace the other.
NLBMDA and Supply-Build Canada stressed the need to preserve fair market access to the lumber products builders and consumers prefer. They also pressed for greater predictability in future trade actions for dealers, suppliers and customers.
The meetings coincided with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, a sign of the broader attention U.S.-Canada trade policy is drawing. Greer told senators the United States is pursuing interim arrangements with Canada and Mexico by the end of the year.
NLBMDA said it will keep pushing for a lasting softwood lumber trade policy, one that supports product availability, market choice and certainty across the supply chain.