
N.B. forestry towns on edge as U.S. tariffs, duties pile up
Social Sharing
Like other New Brunswick forestry towns, the rural community of Kedgwick is on edge.
The economy of the municipality tucked in the middle of the woods in the northwest of the province relies on two major sawmills, J.D. Irving Ltd. and Groupe Savoie, and several smaller forest operations.
"The forest is the blood that runs in our veins," says Mayor Éric Gagnon.
"Around here we know what to do with a tree. Trees are really important to us. Just about the entire population, if they don't work directly with wood, a part of their work comes from it."
WATCH | 'We are very nervous': Mill towns brace for tariff impact:
N.B. forestry towns face tariff triple threat
2 minutes ago
Duration 2:34
So Gagnon has been paying attention to every twist and turn in the Trump tariff saga while staying in touch by phone with the operators of the local mills.
"We're checking in with them every day or two, just to stay up to date … it's a very live issue," he said.
"It's hard to predict the unpredictable with what's happening with our American friends. Mr. Trump has a bit of a hard time staying on track."
About 24,000 New Brunswickers work in the forestry sector, and 80 per cent of the industry's output — softwood and hardwood lumber, pulp and paper, shingles, fibre and strand board — goes to the United States.
Irving, the industry group Forest NB and the New Brunswick Lumber Producers released a fact sheet last month on the threat represented by the tariffs, estimating that seven out of 10 municipalities in the province are home to at least one forestry business.
They were not giving media interviews this week.
"At this time it is too early to determine the full level of impact these tariffs will cause," Forest NB spokesperson Andy Tree said in an email statement.
"We continue working to understand the details of what the announced tariffs will mean for forest sector operations across the province."
J.D. Irving issued a nearly identical statement.
Some of the province's wood exports were already under American protectionist pressure before Donald Trump returned to the White House.
In 2017 the U.S. added New Brunswick to the provinces whose softwood exports are subject to anti-dumping and countervailing duties.
U.S. competitors lobbied for the move because, they argued, increased harvesting on Crown land amounted to a larger public subsidy, which made the province's lumber artificially cheap for American buyers.
The combined duty rate is reviewed annually and this year is 14.4 per cent for all New Brunswick mills except Irving, which has an 11.5 per cent rate.
This week Trump's Commerce Department filed a notice to increase one part of that combined rate, which if adopted would increase the combined rate to 26.8 per cent for most mills and 23.9 per cent for JDI.
The administration has also launched an investigation into imposing additional duties on national security grounds.
Add the 25 per cent tariffs and it amounts to a crushing increase to the cost of Canadian softwood sold in the U.S.
"To put it simply, there's really not many Canadian softwood lumber mills that are going to be able to ship profitably into the U.S. market at the existing prices," said Dustin Jalbert, a wood products economist with the U.S. price forecasting firm Fastmarkets.
The market share for Canadian wood in the U.S. has dropped from 34 per cent in 2000 to 23 per cent last year because of multiple factors, including the duties, Jalbert said.
But there still isn't enough American supply to completely replace Canadian wood, even at higher prices, and the U.S. industry couldn't ramp up to meet that demand for three to five years, he added.
"That's when I come back to the fact that market prices have to go higher to at least keep some of that Canadian supply staying into the market. So you know this is going to come to a cost of the consumer and home builders."
Irving and another major forestry company in the province are facing another challenge thanks to the Trump tariffs.
Twin Rivers Paper Company ships pulp from its Edmundston mill in a pipe across the U.S. border to its Madawaska, Maine paper mill.
The company would not comment this week on how the tariffs might affect the economics of that operation.
Irving wouldn't comment either on what the tariffs mean for the pulp it sends to the $470 million US tissue plant it opened in Macon, Ga., in 2019.
The Macon plant has already seen two expansions, the latest of which will bring employment to more than 500 people, according to a news release from the Macon area economic development authority.
Irving has a number of current job listings for the plant and would not say whether it could shift production from its New Brunswick tissue plants to Georgia to avoid the Trump tariffs.
The Holt government announced a $40 million "competitiveness and growth program" this week to help large New Brunswick companies that depend on exports, along with another $30 million to help companies diversify their markets and mitigate tariff impacts.
Gagnon said he's not sure that's enough to blunt the impact on his municipality, given how deep the industry is embedded there.
"Every part of the forestry industry, we do it here in Kedgwick, so every time there's a crisis, we're affected," he said.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Winnipeg Free Press
37 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Court hearing set on Trump's use of National Guard and Marines to help with immigration raids in LA
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal court hearing is scheduled for Thursday on whether the Trump administration can use the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles. California Gov. Newsom has depicted the federal military intervention in the nation's second largest city as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation's democracy. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has echoed that, saying the deployment of troops was unnecessary and meant to undermine local jurisdictions and intimidate the city's large immigrant population. Newsom filed an emergency motion requesting the court's intervention after President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to Los Angeles following protests over his stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws. The Trump administration called the lawsuit a 'crass political stunt endangering American lives' in its official response on Wednesday. The Democratic governor argued the troops were originally deployed to protect federal buildings and said sending troops to help support immigration raids would only promote civil unrest. The protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles intensified after Trump called up the National Guard and have since spread to other cities, including Boston, Chicago and Seattle. Federal immigration agents have been arresting people at Home Depot parking lots and other businesses, sparking fear in immigrant communities, after the Trump administration said it wanted to dramatically increase arrests under its immigration crackdown. Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. Most demonstrations have been peaceful but this weekend some turned raucous with protesters setting cars on fire in downtown Los Angeles. The city has imposed a nightly curfew covering a 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) section where protests have occurred in the sprawling metropolis of 4 million people. The Marines have not yet been spotted in Los Angeles and Guard troops have had limited engagement with protesters. Newsom filed the motion Tuesday, the same day the military announced some members of the National Guard were now standing in protection around federal agents. The change moves troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations as Trump has promised as part of his administration's immigration crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers but any arrests ultimately would be made by law enforcement. Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer chose not to rule immediately but set the hearing for Thursday in federal court in San Francisco. Dozens of mayors from across the Los Angeles region banded together Wednesday to demand the raids stop and the troops leave.


Toronto Star
37 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Trump's military parade is a US outlier in peacetime but parades and reviews have a long history
Troops marching in lockstep. Patriotic tunes filling the air. The commander in chief looking on at it all. The military parade commemorating the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary and coinciding with President Donald Trump's 79th birthday will be a new spectacle for many Americans. This will not be the first U.S. military parade. However, it is unusual outside of wartime, and Trump's approach stands out compared to his predecessors. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The Army had long planned a celebration for its semi-quincentennial on June 14. Trump has wanted to preside over a grand military parade since his first presidency from 2017 to 2021. When he took office a second time, he found the ideal convergence and ratcheted the Pentagon's plans into a full-scale military parade on his birthday. The president, who is expected to speak in Washington as part of the affair, pitches the occasion as a way to celebrate U.S. power and service members' sacrifice. But there are bipartisan concerns about the cost as well as concerns about whether Trump is blurring traditional understandings of what it means to be a civilian commander in chief. Early US troop reviews Ceremonial reviews — troops looking their best and conducting drills for top commanders — trace back through medieval kingdoms to ancient empires of Rome, Persia and China. The pageantry continued in the young U.S. republic: Early presidents held military reviews as part of July 4th independence celebrations. That ended with James K. Polk, who was president from 1845 to 1849. President Andrew Johnson resurrected the tradition in 1865, holding a two-day 'Grand Review of the Armies' five weeks after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. It came after Johnson declared the Civil War over, a show of force meant to salve a war-weary nation — though more fighting and casualties would occur. Infantry, cavalry and artillery units — 145,000 soldiers, and even cattle — traversed Pennsylvania Avenue. Johnson, his Cabinet and top Army officers, including Ulysses S. Grant, Lincoln's last commanding general and the future 18th president, watched from a White House viewing stand. Spanish-American War and World War I: An era of victory parades begins The Spanish-American War was the first major international conflict for a reunited nation since the Civil War. It ended in a U.S. victory that established an American empire: Spain ceded Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and the U.S. purchased the Philippines for $20 million. Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. territories. New York City hosted multiple celebrations of a new global power. In August 1898, a fleet of warships, including the Brooklyn, the Texas, and the Oregon, sailed up the North River, more commonly known today as the Hudson River. American inventor Thomas Edison filmed the floating parade. The following September, New York hosted a naval and street parade to welcome home Rear Adm. George Dewey, who joined President William McKinley in a viewing stand. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Many U.S. cities held World War I victory parades a few decades later. But neither Washington nor President Woodrow Wilson were the focal point. In Boston, a million civilians celebrated 20,000 troops in 1919. New York honored 25,000 troops marching in full uniform and combat gear. New York was the parade epicenter again for World War II On June 13, 1942, as U.S. involvement in World War II accelerated, about 30,000 people formed a mobilization parade in New York City. Participants included Army and Navy personnel, American Women's Voluntary Services members, Boy Scouts and military school cadets. Scores of floats rolled, too. One carried a massive bust of President Franklin Roosevelt, who did not attend. Less than four years later, the 82nd Airborne Division and Sherman tanks led a victory parade down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the Allied commander during World War II, rode in a victory parade in Washington, D.C. In 1952, Eisenhower would join Grant and George Washington as top wartime commanders elevated to the presidency following their military achievements. Other World War II generals were honored in other homecoming parades. A long parade gap, despite multiple wars The U.S. did not hold national or major city parades after wars in Korea and Vietnam. Both ended without clear victory; Vietnam, especially, sparked bitter societal division, enough so that President Gerald Ford opted against a strong military presence in 1976 bicentennial celebrations, held a year after the fall of Saigon. Washington finally hosted a victory parade in 1991 after the first Persian Gulf War. The Constitution Avenue lineup included 8,000 troops, tanks, Patriot missiles and representatives of the international coalition, led by the U.S., that quickly drove an invading Iraq out of Kuwait. The commander in chief, George H.W. Bush, is the last U.S. president to have held an active-duty military post. He had been a World War II combat pilot who survived his plane being shot down over the Pacific Ocean. Veterans of the second Iraq and Afghanistan wars that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks have not been honored in national parades. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Inaugurations and a flight suit Inaugural parades include and sometimes feature military elements. Eisenhower's 1953 inaugural parade, at the outset of the Cold War, included 22,000 service members and an atomic cannon. Eight years later, President John F. Kennedy, a World War II Naval officer, watched armored tanks, Army and Navy personnel, dozens of missiles and Navy boats pass in front of his reviewing stand. More recent inaugurations have included honor guards, academy cadets, military bands and other personnel but not large combat assets. Notably, U.S. presidents, even when leading or attending military events, wear civilian attire rather than military garb, a standard set by Washington, who also eschewed being called 'General Washington' in favor of 'Mr. President.' Perhaps the lone exception came in 2003, when President George W. Bush, who had been a National Guard pilot, wore a flight suit when he landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq, which U.S. forces had invaded six weeks earlier. The aircraft carrier was not a parade venue but the president emerged to raucous cheers from uniformed service members. He put on a business suit to deliver a nationally televised speech in front a 'Mission Accomplished' banner. As the war dragged on to a less decisive outcome, that scene and its enduring images would become a political liability for the president. ___ Barrow reported from Atlanta.


Winnipeg Free Press
42 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
What to know about ‘No Kings' protests against Trump's policies on Saturday
Opponents of President Donald Trump's administration are set to rally in hundreds of cities on Saturday during the military parade in Washington for the Army's 250th anniversary — which coincides with Trump's birthday. The 'No Kings' protests are set to take place to counter what organizers say are Trump's plans to feed his ego on what is also his 79th birthday and Flag Day. The Army birthday celebration had already been planned. But earlier this spring, Trump announced his intention to ratchet up the event to include 60-ton M1 Abrams battle tanks and Paladin self-propelled howitzers rolling through the city streets. He has long sought a similar display of patriotic force. Why is it called No Kings? The 'No Kings' theme was orchestrated by the 50501 Movement, a national movement made up of everyday Americans who stand for democracy and against what they call the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. The name 50501 stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement. Protests earlier this year have denounced Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk, the now former leader of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, a government organization designed to slash federal spending. Protesters have called for Trump to be 'dethroned' as they compare his actions to that of a king and not a democratically elected president. 'They've defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services,' the group says on its website, referring to the Trump administration and its policies. 'They've done this all while continuing to serve and enrich their billionaire allies.' Why are they protesting on Saturday? The No Kings Day of Defiance has been organized to reject authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics and the militarization of the country's democracy, according to a press release from No Kings. It is happening to counter the Army's 250th anniversary celebration — which Trump has ratcheted up to include an expensive, lavish military parade. The event, will feature hundreds of military vehicles and aircraft and thousands of soldiers. It also happens to be his 79th birthday and Flag Day. 'The flag doesn't belong to President Trump. It belongs to us,' the No Kings website says. 'On June 14th, we're showing up everywhere he isn't — to say no thrones, no crowns, no kings.' Where are the protests? Protests in nearly 2,000 locations are scheduled around the country, from city blocks to small towns, from courthouse steps to community parks, according to the No Kings website. No protests are scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., however, where the parade will be held. The group says it will 'make action everywhere else the story of America that day.' No Kings plans instead to hold a major flagship march and rally in Philadelphia to draw a clear contrast between its people-powered movement and what they describe as the 'costly, wasteful, and un-American birthday parade' in Washington, according to the No Kings website. What is planned at the No Kings protests? People of all ages are expected to come together in the protest locations for speeches, marching, carrying signs and waving American flags, organizers said in a call Wednesday. On the group's website it says a core principle behind all No Kings events is a commitment to nonviolent action, and participants are expected to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with them. Weapons of any kind should not be brought to events, according to the website. How many people are expected to participate? The No Kings Day of Defiance is expected to be the largest single-day mobilization since Trump returned to office, organizers said. Organizers said they are preparing for millions of people to take to the streets across all 50 states and commonwealths.