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The lumber industry says Howard’s allegations are nonsense, unsupported by facts that point to an array of other reasons for prices spiking earlier this summer.

We believe the lumber producers were acting not much differently than the oil cartels did back in the 1970s

“NAHB really has a credibility problem,” said Zoltan van Heyningen, executive director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition.“I am honestly perplexed at this latest odd NAHB claim.”

And he says the duties have, in fact, allowed American lumber companies to boost domestic production.

But their dispute underscores the complex and often-unintended consequences of protectionist tactics. One of the first trade-war salvos President Donald Trump fired at Canada has sparked growing strife between a huge consumer of wood in the U.S. and lumber producers — businesses almost entirely dependent on each other.

And U.S. home builders say they’re now looking for new sources of lumber, including even diseased or downed trees in American national forests that they — and Trump — argue are dangerously dense with trees.

Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

Meanwhile, the American action has hardly brought the Canadian lumber industry to its knees, as happened after similar duties in the past. Higher prices and surging demand for new houses and renovation material in the U.S. have let producers recoup the average 20-per-cent cost of the tariffs and hold market share, said Susan Yurkovich, president of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council.

“Who’s really suffering is the U.S. consumer,” she said.

Canadian mills have also been steadily weaning themselves from the unpredictable American market, expanding into places like east Asia.