The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee is welcoming President Trump’s newly announced tariff on Canadian softwood lumber.
“Unfairly traded softwood lumber from Canada has for decades hurt mill towns and American millworkers in Oregon and across the country,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement Tuesday. “Today’s announcement sends the message that help is on the way.”
President Trump announced Monday evening, in a meeting with conservative journalists, that his administration was retroactively imposing a 20 percent tariff on Canadian lumber imports and promised a similar tax on Canadian milk.
The president argues Canada is “taking advantage” of the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement and vowed further action in a tweet Tuesday morning.
Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2017
“Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!” Trump tweeted.
Trump’s calls for tougher enforcement of U.S. trade policies are gaining support from Democrats, like Wyden, who say a solution is needed to confront “the Canadian policies that distort trade and hold American lumber businesses back from fully realizing their potential.”
