A worker sands a piece of custom cabinetry at the Cabico&co and Elmwood Cabinetry factory in St. Catharines, Ont.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Globe and Mail
U.S. President Donald Trump will postpone planned tariff increases on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities for a year amid “productive” trade talks, the White House said in a statement Thursday.
The announcement offers temporary relief to Canadian manufacturers in the two sectors, which were hit with a 25-per-cent levy in October after the U.S. asserted that the global imports were impairing national security.
Further tariff increases – a jump to 30 per cent for upholstered furniture and to 50 per cent for cabinets and vanities – were slated for Jan. 1.
The October tariff rattled Canada’s cabinet and furniture makers, who warned of a “bloodbath” in an industry already struggling to compete with cheap imports from Asia and weak domestic demand because of the sluggish housing market.
The planned tariff increases will now be delayed until Jan. 1, 2027, as the U.S. works toward trade agreements with multiple countries, the White House said.
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“The delay is a welcome relief, but it’s not a solution,” said Luke Elias, vice-president of the Canadian Kitchen Cabinet Association (CKCA).
“Damage has been done and many companies in Canada have laid off. We have been hurt.”
Canada’s kitchen cabinet and upholstery sectors are relatively small and domestically oriented. Canada sent around US$390-million worth of upholstered furniture and around US$430-million worth of kitchen cabinets to the United States in 2024, according to U.S. customs data.
But the industries employ tens of thousands of people across the country, some of whom were hit with job losses even before the fall tariff announcement.
In March, Prepac Manufacturing Ltd. said it was shuttering its plant in Delta, B.C., laying off 170 workers and relocating its operations to North Carolina. In June, Dorel Industries Inc. announced it was closing its furniture plant in Cornwall, Ont., and laying off more than 300 employees.
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Timber and lumber became the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Commerce Department in March, under trade legislation that allows American authorities to probe the national-security impact of certain imports.
The ensuing furniture tariffs were only applied to upholstered wood products, which accounts for around a fifth of Canadian furniture production.
But Canadian executives have expressed fear that the list of goods that could be hit will balloon, since the executive order implementing the levies includes a process by which other types of furniture can be added to the tariff list at the request of U.S. companies.
Industry groups have called for greater support from Ottawa – including increased protection from low-cost products they say are being dumped in Canada by Asian manufacturers.
The issue has also been an irritant for the CKCA’s American counterparts, who are concerned that “below fair market value” goods from Asia are entering the U.S. market via Canada, Mr. Elias said.
In a November letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative seen by The Globe and Mail, the American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance called for the creation of “Fortress North America” to prevent Mexico and Canada from serving as “conduits of circumvention” of recent furniture tariffs.
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The organization called on the U.S. to require cabinets and vanities to be produced from timber and lumber that is harvested and milled in North America to qualify for United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement treatment.
Mr. Elias said the Canadian government should be taking action in trade negotiations to address those concerns.
Ottawa’s new Buy Canadian procurement policies are a positive development for the cabinet industry, Mr. Elias said, but he wants to see the policy applied to all tax incentives for consumers and builders.
The Wood Manufacturing Cluster of Ontario, a not-for-profit group representing the wood industry, has also called on both federal and provincial governments to mandate a made-in-Canada policy for cabinetry and furniture in government-sponsored housing initiatives.
“There’s still a lot more work to be done here,” Mr. Elias said.
“One of our issues is Canadian kitchen cabinets just aren’t very visible, unlike the steel and automobile industries,” he added.
“However, there’s a kitchen in every home.”
With reports from Mark Rendell