President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Saturday that orders an investigation into U.S. imports of wood products, an industry that the president sees as “essential to the national security, economic strength, and industrial resilience” of the United States.
The order directs Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to lead an investigation into the national security implications of the U.S.’s current imports of timber, lumber, and manufactured wood products. This will include looking into demand for timber and lumber in the U.S., if domestic production can meet domestic demand, the significance of major foreign exporters in meeting U.S. demand, as well as any predatory trade practices that affect the U.S.’s competitiveness in the industry.
A report on this that details these potential national security concerns and includes policy recommendations such as tariffs, which Trump has floated on lumber as recently as mid-February, will be due by late November.
The announcement of an investigation into lumber imports came on the same day Trump released a separate executive order titled “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production” that directs Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to explore ways to “facilitate increased timber production and sound forest management, reduce time to deliver timber, and decrease timber supply uncertainty.”
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The same order also calls for cutting red tape when it comes to timber production that Trump said has “prevented full utilization of these resources and made us reliant on foreign producers.”
Both orders signed on Saturday indicate that the U.S. has a significant amount of timber resources that has been left untapped.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
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