Posted Dec. 16, 2016, at 7:10 a.m. Last modified Dec. 16, 2016, at 3:08 p.m.
A wave of cheap imports is threatening jobs in Maine. Only, they aren’t coming from China or Mexico but from the forests of our largest trading partner: Canada.
For years, the U.S. lumber industry has alleged that Canadian producers have an unfair advantage because they harvest most of their wood from publicly owned forests, where they pay cheaper prices to cut timber. When that wood, primarily used to build houses, is unloaded in the U.S. market, it hurts local lumber manufacturers who employ thousands across Maine.
“All that wood coming across the border depresses prices, forcing producers to sell their wood at cheaper prices or shut down,” Eric Kingsley, a forest industry consultant and vice president of Innovative Natural Resources Solutions in Portland, said.
The U.S. Lumber Coalition is fighting back, again, making good last …