NEWS

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• UPI: U.S. housing starts surge to 13-year high, gov't figures show
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Committed industry partners - and OSU friends - provide financial support to undergraduates studying renewable materials at Oregon State University. Experts from Columbia Forest Products, Murphy Company, Roseburg Forest Products, and others are on hand to work with students.

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OSU: Friends of Renewable Materials scholarship

Due to a shortage of workers and high wages in Vietnam, some U.S. furniture makers are scouting factories in Cambodia and Bangladesh. The leadership of one such company, Haverty Furniture, believes that wood furniture manufacturing "is not coming back to the United States." Asian manufacturers source much of the wood they use from the U.S. Appalachian region.

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By an 89 to 10 vote, the U.S. Senate approved the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on January 16. The bill now goes to President Trump for his signature before going into effect.

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CNBC: Senate passes new North American trade deal, sending it to Trump

The 96-page agreement signed on January 15 includes a commitment by China to purchase $200 billion more of U.S. goods - including hardwood lumber - and services, and an agreement to make new trade commitments. In return, the U.S. has agreed to cut tariffs in half, to 7.5%, on $120 billion of Chinese goods.

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