NEWS

DHA recently signed a letter to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate supporting the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2025. Exemption limits on the estate tax in recent years represent significant relief to family-owned businesses. Without Congressional action, however, the temporary increase in the estate tax exemption amount will expire at the end of 2025, increasing uncertainty and business planning costs.
 

The EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program has been increasingly used to develop overly burdensome regulations for products we use every day. IRIS fails to adequately incorporate high-quality and relevant science and does not consistently use a "weight of the scientific evidence" approach. EPA recently issued its final risk evaluation for formaldehyde under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) based on a flawed IRIS assessment. 

On January 29, DHA sent a letter to the Trump administration requesting that hardwood plywood, veneer, and engineered wood flooring be exempted from the 25% tariffs on imports from Canada. The Canadian decorative hardwoods industry is highly integrated with partners in the U.S. In the same letter, DHA strongly supported tariffs on imports from China and recommended extending the tariffs on imports from Russia to a ban on Russian wood from third countries.
 

Canada had announced retaliatory 25% tariffs on $155 billion of U.S. products. The first phase of these countermeasures would have become effective on February 4. These tariffs specifically include many hardwood products, including hardwood veneer. The tariffs would apply to products under the identified HTS codes whose country of origin is the U.S. based on USMCA marking rules.

On February 1, President Trump announced broad tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% on oil from Canada. These tariffs appear to include hardwood plywood, veneer, and engineered wood flooring. Per a White House fact sheet, these actions and the 10% tariffs on imports from China were meant to incentivize action by these countries on fentanyl and illegal immigration.