The effect of 10% tariffs on Canadian wood imports was the subject of a public hearing before the state's Maine-Canadian Legislative Advisory Commission Wednesday.
Dana Doran is executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast who says his members are struggling to stay afloat.
"If they buy wood from Canada it's hit by a 10% tariff on those raw logs. If they export any of their finished product they're subject to any of the export tariffs," Doran said. "So we've seen a chaotic situation that has occurred over the past 8 weeks because of the situation with tariffs."
Doran says if the U.S. had more domestic manufacturing of building and construction products it would have a bigger share of the marketplace, which could blunt tariffs. But Canada, he says, has 60% of that market.
Collin "Scott" Beal, a Woodland Pulp mill contractor says tariffs and a downturn in the overall global market contributed to a recent shutdown of the mill. He said the mill is poised to restart next week but a new requirement by U.S. Customs called an electronic manifest requires a broker to process and that is adding to the financial strain.
"What that means in terms of manufacturing pulp is that's an added cost of $8 to the cost of manufactured goods, which is enormous. That is a significant headwind going forward if this continues," Beal said.
Beal said a document exchange used to suffice at border crossings, and he has asked Maine's Congressional delegation to try to repeal the requirement.
