B.C. wood manufacturers call on governments for backing beyond counter tariffs

Bhavjit Thandi of Richmond Plywood in Richmond. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

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With Canada and the U.S. now entrenched in a full-on trade war, companies in B.C.’s forestry sector are looking for governments to add measures to support the industry beyond the initial round of counter tariffs.

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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet rolled out its response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s Section 338 tariffs, which included 25 to 50 per cent counter tariffs, due to take effect Sept. 8, on the same categories of wood product, as well as $7.5 billion in financial supports.

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“Yes, those will help us, because they will protect our market, so it’s not a one-way street,” Bhavjit Thandi, the chief financial officer at Richmond Plywood. “It’ll be at least what they did to us.”

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The company’s corner of the forest-products industry hopes that, beyond counter tariffs, Ottawa and Victoria will add steps to “Buy Canadian” policies that will help build the market for their product.

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The industry wants governments to focus on other measures and to streamline regulations that reduce costs and improve access to timber.

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“Not a bailout, but some sort of way to protect the industry until things get better,” Thandi said. “Because the way that Trump is talking now, I think it might get a lot worse.”

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Tariffs are a new reality for plywood makers, which previously weren’t caught up in the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute, which sees Canadian lumber exports hit with punitive duties that totalled an average of 45 per cent in 2026.

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Richmond Plywood’s immediate response to the breakdown of trade talks last Friday was to call back a shipment of eight truckloads of its product waiting to cross the U.S. border, which Thandi estimated could have carried a tariff bill of up to $800,000.

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“And we’ve reduced our production (by) a day as well,” he said. “So these are immediate impacts.”

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Thandi added that there are measures government can take to help his company sell that plywood in Canada. Richmond Plywood, along with its competitors, formed a coalition to formally present those measures to Ottawa and Victoria at the end of July, when Trump first threatened this round of tariff escalation.

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Last fall, Ottawa started a “Buy Canadian” mandate for wood products used in federal public projects, and Thandi said their industry group would like to see it prioritize the purchase of Canadian-manufactured plywood and veneer to help replace lost U.S. sales.

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The group, known as the B.C. Plywood and Veneer Manufacturing Coalition, is also asking Ottawa to review international plywood imports for compliance with Canadian standards, which would include checks for third-party certification and engineering documentation of product for structural use.

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Thandi said companies have received reports of plywood imported from China and Vietnam, which hasn’t received Canadian certification, being used on public projects. He added they can’t compete with those producers “on an uneven playing field.”