Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Eric Johnson. I'm the vice-president of the Forest Products Association of Canada. We represent the companies that manufacture Canada's lumber, pulp and paper, and forest-based bioproducts.
Collectively, our sector directly employs over 200,000 people in every region of the country, and we support another 200,000 jobs indirectly. We contribute approximately $22 billion to Canada's GDP, and we export $37 billion in products every year. That makes forestry one of Canada's top four export industries and the economic backbone of more 300 communities across the country.
For Canada's forest sector, the forthcoming CUSMA review is not just a procedural exercise; it's a strategic moment to re-establish confidence, fairness and predictability in the North American trading system.
For too long, forestry has existed at the margins of our continental trade framework, excluded from the discipline, rules, protection and predictability that apply to other sectors in CUSMA.
The result has been damaging and enduring. Since 2017, Canadian exporters have paid over $10 billion in duties, which now sit in the U.S. treasury. Average combined rates are now at 35%, and newly applied section 232 tariffs add an additional 10% to lumber and 25% to furniture and cabinets.
These aren't policy differences. These are structural failures that continue to punish a sector fundamental to Canada's economy and North America's housing market.
Forestry cannot remain an unresolved bilateral irritant. We should be recognized as a strategic pillar of North American competitiveness. Our mills supply over 90% of the lumber imported by the U.S. When our trade relationship breaks down, homebuilding slows, housing costs rise and workers on both sides of the border lose.
For Canada, resolving this dispute is about more than a tariff line; it's about anchoring the rules of fair trade in the products that literally build our continent. The CUSMA review is the opportunity to make that happen.
Specifically, FPAC urges the Government of Canada to secure a durable softwood lumber settlement under the CUSMA umbrella to provide long-term certainty for producers, workers and communities; end the misuse of the national security tariffs and codify protection against their future application to integrated resource sectors; and reinforce the integrity of the dispute settlement process through binding timelines and enforceable rulings that prevent cases from being stalled indefinitely.
These are not new ideas. They are overdue fixes to ensure that Canada's most trade-exposed manufacturing sector can operate under predictable rules-based conditions.
Canada's forest sector is not seeking special treatment; it's asking to compete on a level playing field. A modernized CUSMA should be forward-looking in aligning standards, accelerating product innovation and rewarding low-carbon, responsibly sourced materials.
A continental approach to forestry can underpin North America's housing affordability, climate resilience and industrial competitiveness. Every home built in the U.S. supports U.S. construction jobs and Canadian forest jobs. A fair, stable trading framework will deliver growth, investment and even energy security across the region, in particular for rural and remote communities in Canada.
The Government of Canada's recent $1.2-billion package offers some stability, but programs and loans don't substitute for market access. What will restore investment and confidence is a clear strategy towards a durable trade resolution, backed by political focus at the highest levels.
Canada must approach the 2026 review with a whole-of-government mandate, treating softwood lumber and forest products as integral to CUSMA's success and the wider prosperity of North America, not an exception to it. The world is watching to see whether Canada can secure fairness for its most renewable and low-carbon export sector.
The forest sector has been a dependable partner in Canada's prosperity for over a century. It's ready to be a partner again in shaping a renewed North American trade framework that works for workers, communities and consumers on both sides of the border.
We ask the committee to underscore that forestry must be central to Canada's CUSMA priorities—not as a historical grievance but as a modern opportunity to strengthen competitiveness, stability and economic security across North America.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.