U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he steps from Air Force One upon his arrival in West Palm Beach, Fla., U.S., Feb. 28. Reuters-Yonhap
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Saturday to launch an investigation into the impact of lumber and timber imports on America's national security, a move that could lead to a new tariff imposition.
Trump directed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to initiate the probe, saying the United States faces "significant" vulnerabilities in the wood supply chain from imported timber, lumber and their derivative products being dumped onto the U.S. market.
A White House official mentioned South Korea and China as he stressed the probe will also target derivative products, including kitchen cabinets. It is to proceed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that allows the president to impose import restrictions if an import threatens to hurt national security.
On the same day, Trump also inked an executive order designed to increase domestic timber production and help reduce construction and housing costs in the U.S. Timber refers to unprocessed trees or tree parts, while lumber refers to processed wood.
"Our disastrous timber and lumber policies, the legacy of the previous administration, trigger wildfires and degrade our fish and wildlife habitats," the official told reporters in a telephonic press briefing.
"They drive up construction and housing costs, and impoverish America through large trade deficits that result from exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil dumping lumber into our markets at the expense of both our economic prosperity and national security."
The official underscored that the administration is also zeroing in on ramifications from derivative products.
"We have situations, for example, where we're exporting our logs, and they're coming back from China in particular, and South Korea does this too ... very heavily subsidized things like kitchen cabinets and the like," he said.
Asked why lumber imports pose a threat to national security, the official said that the Pentagon is a major consumer of lumber and derivative products.
"The whole issue of having a reliable source is critical. If you look at kind of the military needs, we are not building, obviously, aircraft with it, but we are certainly building all the ancillary structures that the military needs," he said.
"And it's simply a danger to this country to get increasingly dependent on a foreign supply chain or a product that we could be almost self-sufficient in."
Last month, Trump said he was weighing a 25 percent tariff on lumber and wood products.
According to the Korea International Trade Association, South Korea's furniture exports to the U.S. were tallied at US$30 million last year. Some observers say U.S. tariffs on timber imports, if imposed, might have a limited impact on Asia's fourth-largest economy.
The latest action came after Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to investigate how copper imports threaten America's national security and economic stability, in a move that could lead to the imposition of new tariffs on the metal used to produce aircraft, vehicles, ships and other military hardware.
Since taking office in January, Trump has made a series of tariff announcements, including a plan to start imposing 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports March 12 and a threat to roll out "reciprocal" tariffs and new duties on cars, chips and pharmaceuticals.
He has been using tariffs to reduce America's trade deficits, boost domestic manufacturing and achieve other policy goals, including preventing the inflow of undocumented migrants and drugs, such as fentanyl. (Yonhap)