Trump tariffs on Canadian lumber risk toilet paper supply

President Donald Trump’s promised tariffs on softwood lumber risk disrupting the supply chain for something nobody wants to be caught without: toilet paper.

The Trump administration plans to almost double duties on Canadian softwood lumber to 27 per cent, with the possibility of additional levies pushing the rate to more than 50 per cent. While Trump advocates for new tariffs partly to bolster United States manufacturing, they may also hit the availability of northern bleached softwood kraft pulp, or NBSK, a key component in making toilet paper and paper towels.

NBSK constitutes about 30 per cent of standard U.S. bathroom tissue and half of a typical paper towel, and is currently sourced primarily from Canada, said Brian McClay, chairman of TTOBMA, which tracks the global pulp market. He added that the U.S. imported about 2 million tons of Canadian NBSK last year, highlighting the longstanding reliance of American paper-goods producers on pulp from their northern neighbour.

“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,” McClay said.

“If Canadian pulp mills close because they don’t have the fibre supply, I can’t think of any other option for them — they just can’t switch the recipe around,” he said.

The scenario risks reviving painful memories of pandemic-era toilet paper shortages, when store shelves were stripped bare amid panic buying. Another possibility: higher prices at the checkout counter.

Trump has long promoted tariffs as a tool to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., and he’s repeatedly said his country doesn’t need Canadian