2020 ALL OVER AGAIN

Trump’s New Canada Tariff Threatens Toilet Paper Supply

The president has often touted tariffs to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and claimed the country doesn’t need Canadian lumber.

The Trump administration’s latest tariff promise on softwood lumber may disrupt the supply chain of toilet paper and paper towels, Bloomberg reported. The U.S. relies heavily on Canadian northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp to make these bathroom and kitchen staples, with about 2 million tons imported last year. But now the administration plans to double duties on Canadian softwood lumber to 27 percent, with the possibility of additional levies pushing the rate to over 50 percent. These tariffs not only risk higher prices and supply constraints, but they could even result in toilet paper shortages. Not to mention a cascading effect on the supply chain. In fact, NBSK constitutes about 30 percent of standard U.S. toilet paper and half of a typical paper towel. “Some of these mills in the United States, some of the big branded products, not only want softwood pulp from Canada, they want softwood pulp from this particular mill—they’ve been using it for 30 years and they will not change,” Brian McClay, chairman of TTOBMA which tracks the global pulp market, said. “If Canadian pulp mills close because they don’t have the fiber supply, I can’t think of any other option for them—they just can’t switch the recipe around.”