U.S. Home Builders Don’T Like Deal

For American home builders, though, the lumber deal is a skunk in the woods – and much worse. It is money out of their pockets, by way of higher costs resulting from higher tariffs and lessened competition. They don’t like it and they are looking for ways to lessen their dependence on Canada. They are exploring new sources of supply. Jerry Howard, the chief executive officer of NAHB – the National Association of Home Builders – is in Moscow right now, enticing Russian softwood lumber producers to enter the American market. He and David Wilson, the association’s immediate past president, arrived in Russia from Sweden, where they met with "several large lumber-producing companies, trade organizations and government officials" to encourage them to increase exports of softwood and other wood products to America, says an NAHB press release issued last Friday. Jenna Morgan Hamilton, an NAHB lobbyist and veteran of the Canadian-American lumber wars, told me American home builders have no choice but to try to diversify their sources of lumber supply. After the last 10 years, "we are tired" of the Canadian complications, she said. "We can’t afford to throw uncertainty into the mix." http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/533909.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 13, 2006]

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