AF&PA responds to tariffs on Canada, Mexico

After President Donald Trump announced this week 25 percent tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico as well as related retaliatory measures, the Washington-based American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) issued a response, emphasizing its concern that the tariffs will disrupt the forest and paper industry’s “complex” cross-border supply chains.

“While we recognize the administration’s goals of securing our borders, AF&PA remains concerned that today’s new North American tariffs have potential to seriously disrupt our industry’s complex, cross-border supply chains,” AF&PA President and CEO Heidi Brock says. “These manufacturing processes have been built and refined with the customer in mind around existing mill infrastructure for decades.”

Brock says pulp and paper mills are strategically located across the U.S. to “efficiently and sustainably” create essential products for everyday use and notes that certain raw materials must be sourced from Canada because of specific fiber quality demands and transportation efficiencies.

“From turning wood chips into pulp, pulp into base stock and then transforming that raw material into a product that is then packaged for distribution, our industry’s manufacturing process involves many stages that can each happen at different facilities on both sides of the border,” she says.

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“The U.S. forest products industry employs more than 925,000 people, largely in rural communities across the country. We rely on Canada and Mexico as key trading partners and strongly encourage them to continue addressing concerns raised by the U.S. government.

“We look forward to continued conversations with the administration to highlight our industry’s contributions to the American economy and workforce in an effort to avoid longer term disruption to U.S. pulp, paper and packaging manufacturing operations.”