Hours after Donald Trump imposed a blanket 20% tariff on Chinese imports —up from a 10% tariff announced last month—Beijing responded, with China Customs suspending logs at the port amid fears of a bark beetle and longhorn beetle infestation in shipments.
China’s General Administration of Customs said the decision, effective March 4, was made to prevent the spread of harmful organisms and protect China’s forestry and agricultural industries as per the Biosecurity Law of China, the Entry-Exit Animal and Plant Quarantine Law, and international phytosanitary measures.
It comes after Wood Central revealed that US softwood and hardwood logs were left off tariffs introduced by Beijing last month. More than 173,000 cubic meters of logs were traded into China in December, making China the United States second-most important market for logs and third-most important market for log imports.
In November, Wood Central revealed that China accounted for just under 40% of all American hardwoods and softwoods (38%) traded from US shores for the year to September (about 1.92 million cubic metres), ahead of Canada (31%), Japan (17%), India (5%) and Vietnam (4.4%).
“Softwood logs comprised 70% of total exports, totalling 2.78 million cubic metres,” said Russian-based Lesproom Analytics, with “hardwood logs followed with 29.4% of the total market, or about 1,165 thousand cubic metres,” and tropical logs making up just 0.3% of the volume.
Wood Central understands that the suspension, which has no timeline for lifting, could impact the US export strategy and comes just days after Donald Trump instructed Howard Lutnick, his new Secretary of Commerce, to investigate the effect of lumber exports on National Security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
