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MADAWASKA, Ont. — It didn’t take long for Donald Trump’s new tariffs on softwood lumber to echo in Ontario’s Madawaska Valley — a forestry-dependent area almost exactly 1,000 kilometres due north of the U.S. capital.

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The unease settling into the region, which is dotted by sawmills vital to the local economy, is not only tied to the U.S. president’s move this week to impose retroactive duties averaging 20 per cent.

There are also fears about what might come next from the Trump administration.

Some believe another wave of bad news could come in the form of a separate anti-dumping duty on softwood, the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement or a proposed border tax on all imported goods.

“All of these communities are dependent on the forest-products industry, even if people aren’t working directly in the sawmills or in the bush,” said Ted Murray, vice-president of the 115-year-old Murray Brothers Lumber Company in Madawaska, about 220 kilometres west of Ottawa.