WASHINGTON — Troy Brown, president of the Kretz Lumber Company in Wisconsin, is lobbying the Trump administration for financial relief after suffering losses this year as a result, he says, of President Donald Trump’s trade war.
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” Brown said.
Brown said 30% of his company’s sales went to China before trade tensions erupted during the president’s first term in 2018. By the time Spectrum News spoke to him in mid-October, his sales to China had disappeared, after the two countries imposed tariffs on each other’s products. Now, Brown said his sales to China have inched up after the two countries reached a truce in their trade war.
“We understand that we won’t be made whole in this. I think what we’re looking for is just some kind of tariff relief that we can take back to our companies. We will not be profitable, guaranteed, if tariff relief is offered to us and distributed to us, but at least it’ll give us a good chance to keep operating,” Brown said.
Last week, President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced $12 billion in aid for farmers affected by his trade war. Eleven billion dollars was earmarked for payments to row crop farmers, and a billion dollars reserved for producers of other commodities—including, potentially, lumber.
Rollins said that money could go to “some specialty crops and others that we are still working with to best understand where they are in the farm economy, and ensure that we’re making every forward-moving position that we need to.”
Brown said he is lucky that he has not had to lay off staff, but he said he has stopped reinvesting in the company. He said that’s true of other lumber companies too.
“They’re just trying to stay alive,” Brown said.
Brown estimates prices have dropped between 25-30%.
“A 25% price drop can actually cripple most of the companies in this industry,” he said, adding that he hopes “it comes back in relief to those that apply for this relief from the from the administration.”
Brown said during the 2018 trade war, lumber companies attempted to get tariff relief but were told the funds had been allocated. Now, they see an opening to get in on the relief this time.
“In 2018, when the trade war hit, there was a lot more domestic business that was available to us,” Brown explained. “And over that time, domestic business has contracted along with the export business as a result of the trade war that we had. So, we understood that we need to be proactive in working with the administration and all the representatives within the administration to let them know, ‘Hey, this is an agriculture industry, and please consider us, because this is what’s happening as a result of a trade war.’”
But Brown said, “We would not have been considered if we didn’t lobby, guaranteed,” chalking it up to how many industries ask their elected officials for help.
“You can’t possibly take care of everybody if you don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
When asked for comment, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said, “President Trump cares deeply about America’s lumber producers, which is why he imposed tariffs on imports of lumber and wood products to strengthen this vital industry for our national security. The remaining $1 billion of the $12 billion in bridge payments will be reserved for commodities not covered in the [Farmer Bridge Assistance] Program. We do not have further announcements at this time.”
Brown said he feels like the administration is listening to the lumber companies.
“Like I mentioned,” he said, “there’s so many other industries, and particularly in the ag group, that [have] suffered as a result of this trade war. Hope is not something that I like to hang my hat on, but more optimistic than I have been in the past. Certainly, being at the table and the administration listening to us, I am quite a bit more optimistic than I was in 2018.”
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