Cheat Sheet

September 10, 2026

HF Reaffirms Ag Chair Support for Economic Relief:  During a fundraising dinner last week, Hardwood Federation Executive Director Dana Lee Cole had an extended conversation with House Agriculture Chair GT Thompson (R-PA) who reaffirmed his support for securing economic relief for the US hardwood industry.  Hardwood continues to be included in the supplementary agriculture relief proposal.  The Federation believes if this effort moves, it will not be until after the November election.  We continue to work with our champions in both the House and Senate to push this funding over the finish line.

Meeting with House Natural Resources Chair’s Team: The Hardwood Federation team also met with new staff handling the forestry and forest products issue portfolio in House Natural Resource Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman’s office. Although we have previously briefed the Chairman’s team about our efforts, we wanted to be sure to include new hires. Although somewhat out of the Chairman’s jurisdiction, his team has always been supportive of hardwood priorities and appreciated the update and asked to be kept in the loop.

Aside from our relief discussion, we were also asked for thoughts on a priority issue for the office.  Chairman Westerman has been hearing not only from our sector, including representatives from the National Hardwood Lumber Association, but from advocates across the forestry and forest products value chain, including softwood and paper interests, that wood products markets are in desperate need of revival. The Chairman’s team is looking at fashioning legislation to help address some of these issues. While development of the bill is in its nascent stages and there are no specifics at this point, areas that are being explored include trade, the Renewable Fuel Standard and how the U.S. can better prioritize utilizing domestically produced forest products in procurement processes. We offered our support of this effort as well as our willingness to provide assistance as they move forward.

Farm Bill to See Action Next Week: The Senate Ag Committee is set to resume consideration of the Farm Bill on Tuesday, Sept. 15. The Committee plans to vote on the Farm Bill at 3:30pm alongside a floor vote.  This vote resumes the August 6 business meeting where a Senate Farm Bill markup began. That meeting was recessed rather than adjourned, so the Committee will pick up where it left off instead of conducting a new markup. Therefore, we do not expect another amendment process. Instead, the primary objective on Tuesday will be finding the votes necessary to report the bill out of Committee.

Trade Dispute with Canada Continues: The ongoing trade dispute with Canada continued this week with threatened Canadian retaliatory tariffs going into effect on Tuesday night (wood products start on page 2, HS code 4402.90.10).  The Trump Administration responded with additional tariffs and import restrictions issued through 5 proclamations.

·         Proclamation One modifies the Section 338 auto order to subject more products to the 50% tariff (as laid out in Annex I, Part A) and remove eight products from the list (as laid out in Annex I, Part B), effective September 15 at 12:01am Eastern.

·         Proclamation Two modifies the Section 338 alcohol order to subject more products to the 50% tariff (as laid out in Annex I, Part A) and remove two products from the list (as laid out in Annex I, Part B), effective September 15 at 12:01am Eastern.

·         Proclamation Three expands the Section 338 auto order to impose a ban on imports of the lone product in the Annex(motorcycles), effective September 29 at 12:01am Eastern.

·         Proclamation Four expands the Section 338 alcohol order to impose a ban on imports of products in the Annex(various alcohol products), effective September 29 at 12:01am Eastern.

·         Proclamation Five expands the Section 338 dairy order to impose a ban on imports of products in the Annex (whey and molasses products, as well as non-alcoholic beer), effective September 29 at 12:01am Eastern.

Some paper products were added to the lists of Canadian products scheduled for increased tariffs (however, toilet paper was actuallyremoved from the list).  There is some chance that negotiations will pick back up, but no specific meetings or discussions seem to have been scheduled.