Trump’s Wood Tariffs Left Cabinets Waiting and Hardwood Next

President Donald Trump’s Section 232 wood tariffs have held at 10 percent on softwood lumber and 25 percent on kitchen cabinets and upholstered wooden goods since October 14, 2025. A planned jump to 50 percent on cabinets, due January 1, 2026, was postponed a full year.

The Commerce Department still owes the president an update on hardwood timber and lumber by October 1, 2026, the next point at which this national-security case could widen from pine boards and vanities into oak and maple logs.

Logs Got a 10 Percent Duty; Kitchens Got 25

The September 29, 2025 wood-products proclamation did not put one rate on the whole forest-products trade. Softwood timber and lumber got a 10 percent extra duty. Certain upholstered wooden products, and kitchen cabinets and vanities including imported parts, got 25 percent. Those finished-goods rates were written to rise on January 1, 2026, unless a country deal stopped the hike.

SECTION 232 WOOD DUTIES NOW IN FORCE

Goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on October 14, 2025, pay the new rates. The wood duties do not apply on top of the auto Section 232; if both would hit the same article, the auto order governs. They also do not apply together with the April 2025 reciprocal tariffs, or with the Brazil and Russia emergency tariff orders named in the proclamation. Drawback is available. Foreign-trade-zone entries generally must come in as privileged foreign status.

The United Kingdom’s Section 232 wood rate cannot exceed 10 percent. For the European Union and Japan, the Section 232 duty plus the Column 1 rate cannot exceed 15 percent. Chapter 44 lines were stripped from the reciprocal-tariff exclusion list on the same October 14 start date, except aligned-partner items that are not already under an antidumping or countervailing order, so wood that escaped the 232 list did not automatically escape other duties.

The 50 Percent Cabinet Wall Moved to 2027

On December 31, 2025, the night before the 30 percent furniture rate and the 50 percent cabinet rate were to begin, Trump signed a second proclamation and delayed those increases until January 1, 2027. The 10 percent lumber duty did not move. The 25 percent cabinet and upholstered rates stayed in force.

I determine that it is necessary and appropriate to continue these negotiations and to delay for an additional year the increase in the duty rates for upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets, and vanities.

Donald J. Trump, December 31, 2025 proclamation

The Trade Representative had told him the United States was still in “productive negotiations of agreements with multiple countries” on wood imports. Trading partners that close a deal addressing the national-security finding can still be spared the 2027 step-up. No such deal has taken the 10 percent lumber tariff off Canadian boards.

A Canada package discussed in August 2026 was described as one that would have dropped that 10 percent lumber duty. The cut never took effect, and U.S. Customs has kept collecting it. Builders still write the stacked Canadian rate into framing bids even when weekly lumber prints ease off a summer high.

Canada Still Ships $5.2 Billion of the Covered Lumber

Covered U.S. imports of that softwood were about $7 billion in 2024, and Canada supplied about 75 percent of it, or $5.2 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service. All U.S. wood-product imports that year were about $23 billion, nearly half from Canada at $11 billion. There is no USMCA waiver for the Section 232 wood duties. Origin under the North American deal does not open a gate.

Ottawa says the 10 percent Section 232 duty is collected in addition to anti-dumping and countervailing duties already on Canadian lumber. The scopes do not match exactly. Boards certified by the Atlantic Lumber Board as first produced in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island stay out of the dumping and subsidy orders, and they still pay the 10 percent national-security tariff.

CANADA SOFTWOOD CASH DEPOSITS FROM THE SIXTH REVIEW

Those amended sixth-review rates took effect in summer 2025, with a September 11, 2025 correction on the dumping side, and they are the cash-deposit schedule Canada still posts for covered exporters. A later seventh review has floated lower preliminary combined dumping and subsidy rates for many mills, but those figures are not the deposits in force until Commerce makes them final. The 10 percent Section 232 layer sits on top either way.

HOW THE WOOD DUTIES STACK

• Canada lumber: Section 232 adds 10 percent on top of each mill’s dumping and subsidy cash deposits.
• Auto overlap: If a wood article is also under the auto Section 232, only the auto duty applies.
• Reciprocal tariffs: Articles paying these wood duties are kept off the April 2025 reciprocal tariff, and off the Brazil and Russia emergency tariff orders named in the proclamation.
• Section 338: Later 50 percent Canada tariffs carved out goods already under Section 232, which is why much softwood stayed in the lumber stack instead of moving into that newer list.

A February 20, 2026 Supreme Court ruling against IEEPA tariffs left Section 232 untouched, so the wood duties stayed in force after the emergency surtaxes came down. That is why a 10 percent national-security lumber tariff that looks modest on its own still lands as a 45.16 percent all-others bill once the older lumber-war duties are counted.

What the National-Security File Claimed

Trump ordered a Section 232 investigation on March 1, 2025. Commerce opened the case on March 10. Secretary Howard Lutnick sent his report to the president on July 1. The public has the proclamation’s summary of that report, not the full study.

A White House fact sheet said the United States has been a net importer of lumber since 2016 even though domestic mills have the practical capacity to supply 95 percent of 2024 softwood consumption. It also said the U.S. military spends over $10 billion a year on construction and is testing products such as cross-laminated timber. Lutnick’s findings, as the president restated them, tied imports to mill-closure risk, idle capacity, foreign subsidies, and a weaker ability to supply defense and infrastructure.

WOOD USES CITED IN THE SECURITY FINDING

• Defense works: Infrastructure for operational testing, plus housing and storage for people and materiel.
• Munitions: Transport of munitions, and wood as an ingredient in munitions.
• Strategic systems: Components in missile-defense systems and thermal-protection systems for nuclear-reentry vehicles.
• Civilian networks: Communications, energy, transportation, and manufacturing, including the power grid.

That list is why a 10 percent duty on logs and dimensional lumber can be argued as industrial policy for sawmills. It is a longer stretch for a 25 percent duty on bathroom vanities, which is why the cabinet line, not the 2×4 line, is where the order still draws the sharpest objection.

I find it hard to buy a “national security” tariff on bathroom vanities, kitchen cabinets, and upholstered furniture. I could potentially buy a national security rationale for maintaining some basic US sawmill capacity.

Peter Harrell, visiting scholar at Georgetown Law and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, September 26, 2025

The proclamation also told Commerce to build an inclusion process for more wood products, and a separate process to swap in specific, compound, or mixed duties if imports look undervalued. Those tools are how a 10 percent log tariff can creep onto goods that were never in Annex I.

The Cabinet Duty Landed on Vietnam, Not the Sawmills

The Congressional Research Service put about $11 billion of 2024 U.S. imports in the upholstered-wood, kitchen-cabinet, and vanity basket that the October 2025 tariffs could cover. Vietnam was the top source at $4.5 billion. Canada supplied about $0.8 billion, or about 8 percent. The 25 percent cabinet duty is, in trade terms, a Vietnam and Asia finished-goods tariff that happens to live inside a lumber national-security case.

U.S. cabinet groups had spent years arguing that cheap imported boxes were undercutting domestic plants after production moved offshore. The 232 order gave them a global rate instead of another country-specific dumping case. Importers of ready-to-assemble kitchens and stock vanities took the first price hit in October 2025. The delayed 50 percent step, still on the calendar for January 1, 2027, is the figure remodelers budget against when they lock 2027 packages.

Softwood from Canada remains the volume that actually frames houses. Finished cabinets are the line that pays the higher 232 rate. That split is the part of the September 2025 design that survived the New Year’s Eve delay, and it is why a mill-rescue headline still reads, at the cash register, as a kitchen-and-sofa surcharge.

Colorado’s Largest Mill Is Closing Anyway

The proclamation said import volumes were feeding mill closures and cutting the industry’s ability to meet defense and infrastructure demand. Hardwood mill groups had already been warning about lost export markets and weekly shutdowns before the 232 duties began, and they kept warning after. The National Hardwood Lumber Association’s Dallin Brooks said the 2017 China fight cut hardwood exports 20 to 25 percent and forced shutdowns, and that 2025 was worse. The Hardwood Federation gathered more than 450 U.S. sawmills on a letter asking Agriculture and the White House for relief after the September order.

In Montrose, Colorado, Neiman Enterprises told 90 workers at Montrose Forest Products on September 8, 2026, that the state’s largest lumber mill would wind down once remaining timber ran out. Layoffs were set to run through November 6 unless a buyer appeared. The company pointed to log supply and a failed sale, not to a single tariff line.

For months, we searched for a buyer who could continue operating the mill in Montrose, but we were unable to secure one.

Jim Neiman, president of Neiman Enterprises, company statement, September 2026

A 10 percent duty on imported boards does not plant trees on national forest ground or reopen a mill that cannot buy logs. The security finding treated mill closures as the threat. Closures have continued on a separate clock, which is the awkward fact hanging over the hardwood review now due.

Hardwood Gets Its Own Clock on October 1

Softwood took the 10 percent hit in October 2025. Hardwood timber and lumber were left for a later call. Clause 9 of the original order tells the secretary to send the president an update on hardwood imports, markets, and the domestic industry by October 1, 2026, so the White House can decide whether to add a duty, including the phased hardwood import duty recommended in the July 1, 2025 report, and whether to tariff hardwood derivatives too.

THE WOOD 232 CALENDAR

1. March 1, 2025: President Trump directs Commerce to open a Section 232 case on timber, lumber, and derivative wood products.
2. March 10, 2025: Commerce starts the investigation and asks for public comments.
3. July 1, 2025: Secretary Lutnick sends his report and recommendations to the president.
4. September 29, 2025: Proclamation 10976 sets the 10 percent and 25 percent duties, with 30 percent and 50 percent step-ups then dated January 1, 2026.
5. October 14, 2025: Customs begins collecting the new rates at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time.
6. December 31, 2025: A second proclamation moves the 30 percent and 50 percent step-ups to January 1, 2027.
7. October 1, 2026: Commerce is due to deliver the hardwood timber and lumber update.
8. January 1, 2027: Upholstered wooden products are set to rise to 30 percent and cabinets and vanities to 50 percent unless a country agreement blocks the hike.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Softwood rate: The 10 percent extra duty has no scheduled increase and has been collected since October 14, 2025.
• Finished wood: Cabinets, vanities, and listed upholstered wooden products remain at 25 percent through 2026.
• Hardwood file: The July 1, 2025 report recommended a phased import duty on hardwood that the president has not yet imposed.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Hardwood duty: Whether Commerce will recommend a new hardwood tariff, and at what rate, has not been published.
• 2027 step-up: Whether any country agreement will cancel the January 1, 2027 rise to 30 percent and 50 percent is still open.
• Scope creep: Whether Commerce will add more finished wood goods through the inclusion process remains a live option under the original order.

The secretary’s hardwood update is due by October 1, 2026. The 50 percent cabinet rate is still on the calendar for January 1, 2027, unless a deal takes it off.