Tariff Commission Report on Lumber

The President has approved a report of the Tariff Commission relative to an investigation of softwood lumber in the United States and in Canada, the principal competing country. No change in the present rate of duty of $1 per thousand board feet will be made.

The lumber investigation was undertaken in compliance with Senate Resolutions No. 313 and No. 321, dated July 3, 1931, and July 16, 1931, respectively. Applications received by the commission from the West Coast Lumbermens'Association and the Southern Pine Association for an investigation of certain species were merg'ed with the investigation ordered under the senate resolutions. A public hearing was held in Washington, D. C., on March 19 and 20, 1931.

Under the tariff act of 1922 soltwood lumber was free of duty. The act of 1930 (paragraph 4Ol) imposed a duty of $1 per thousand board feet on lumber and timber of fir, spruce, pine, hemlock, or larch, but exempted rough lumber or lumber planed or dressed on one side when imported from a contiguous country which admits rough or similar dressed lumber from the United States free of duty. Under this proviso rough softwood lumber or lumber dressed on one side from Canada is at present free of duty, and the rate of $1 applies only on lumber dressed on two or more sides.

Fir, spruce, pine, hemlock, and larch, the dutiable species, represent the great bulk of the production of softwood lumber in the United States as well as of the imports. For a number of years prior to 1930 the average annual domestic production of softwood lumber was about 30 billion board feet, the exports abot 2.5 billion feet, and the imports 1.6 billion feet, imports thus being between 5 and 6 per cent of domestic consumption. It is only since June 18, 1930, that imports of rough lumber have been distinguished from those of dressed lumber in import statistics. Between that date and June 30, 1931, total imports amounted to 805 million feet, of which 436 million feet consisted of dutiable lumber.

" The commission's investigation was carried on in five distinct lumber-producing regions in the United States arid four in Canada, each region differing from the other as regards the principal species produced.

There Is A Reason

In the several regions in the United States and Canada covered by the investigation a wide variation was found in the character and stand of timber, logging methods, and methods of transporting logs to mill; in the costs of difierent species, grades and sizes of rough and dressed lumber produced; and in the markets reached and the cost of transportation to such markets.

The commission's report shows that for important species the costs of domestic lumber delivered at the New York market exceeded the cost of Canadian lumber at that market by approximately the following differences per thousand feet, board measure: domestic Dougals fir as compared with Canadian Douglas fir, 80c; Southern pine as compared with Canadian Douglas fir, $7.08; domestic Douglas fir and Southern pine taken together as compared with Canadian Douglas fir, $3.65; Northern pine, $2.11; and Eastern spruce, $1.11. At the Chicago market the delivered cost of domestic Douglas fir exceeded that of Canadian Douglas fir by 43c; the cost of Canadian Douglas fir exceeded that of domestic Southern pine by $1.93; and exceeded that of domestic Douglas fir and Southern pine taken together by $1.56; the cost of Canadian Northern pine exceeded that of domestic Northern pine by $2.6; and the costs of domestic Eastern spruce exceeded the costs of the like or similar Canadian product by $1.27.

Costs were obtained by the commission for two additional domestic specie for which comparable Canadian costs are not available, and costs of one Canadian species for which comparable domestic costs are not available. The domestic woods are Idaho white pine, the delivered cost of which at New York was found to be $50.74 per thousand feet, and at Chicago, $47.18; and Pondosa pine the delivered cost of which at New York is $41.42, and at Chicago, $37.73. The cost of Engelmann spruce, produced in Canada, delivered at New York was $'10.53, and at Chicago, $36.98.

The commission found that the facts with regard to the differences in costs of production, and transportation to the principal markets in the United States, of the species covered by the investigation, do not warrant a change in the duty of $1 per thousand feet board measure.

Seattle Boiler Works

Scattlc,