Commerce Cuts Canadian Lumber Duties to 24.75%. Cedar Sauna Paneling Still Pays 74.75%

Canadian lumber got cheaper to bring into the US on October 19. That day the Commerce Department published the final results of its review of 2024 shipments, and the combined antidumping and countervailing cash deposit for most Canadian producers fell from 35.16% to 24.75% (antidumping notice; countervailing notice).

Cedar sauna paneling got a smaller break. Plain tongue-and-groove Western red cedar paneling is covered by the lumber orders and also sits on the Section 338 list, which has added 50% to listed Canadian goods since August 22. Its total falls from 85.16% to 74.75%. End-matched paneling and siding pay neither Section 338 nor the Section 232 lumber tariff, so they drop to 24.75%.

The lumber deposit fell about 10 points

Commerce examined three Canadian producers individually and set one rate for the 220 other producers and exporters named in the review:

• Antidumping: the rate for those producers fell from 20.53% to 10.64%.
• Countervailing: it fell from 14.63% to 14.11%.
• The three examined producers got their own antidumping rates: Canfor 17.00%, Resolute 13.13% and West Fraser 4.71%.
• Producers never covered by any review keep the original investigation rates, 6.04% antidumping and 14.19% countervailing.

The new rates apply to entries from October 19. They are cash deposits, not final bills: Commerce sets the final amount for each year’s shipments in a later review.

Sawn and planed softwood boards also pay the 10% Section 232 tariff that took effect in October 2025. That tariff reaches tariff headings 4403, 4406 and 4407.11 through 4407.19, which cover logs and sawn softwood. It doesn’t reach heading 4409, profiled wood, according to US note 37 of the tariff schedule’s chapter 99 (HTSUS chapter 99).

One cedar board, two very different rates

Sauna paneling is profiled wood, heading 4409, and the heading splits several ways:

• 4409.10.90 (catch-all profiled softwood). It has its own Western red cedar statistical line, and it’s where CBP put the tongue-and-groove cedar from a Canadian sauna kit in a 2012 ruling. It is on the Section 338 list. Section 338 doesn’t replace the lumber duties. Chapter 99’s US note 51 says listed goods “shall continue to be subject to antidumping, countervailing or other duties,” and a USMCA certificate doesn’t exempt them.
• 4409.10.05 (wood continuously shaped along its ends). This takes in end-matched boards, tongued and grooved on the ends as well as the edges. It isn’t on the Section 338 list. CBP has classified end-matched tongue-and-groove Western red cedar there, in a 2005 ruling on 5/8-inch-thick siding boards (NY L86178). It carries a 3.2% general duty, which a valid USMCA certificate removes.
• 4409.10.10 (siding). Also off the Section 338 list.

On $10,000 of entered value, the gap is $5,000. Plain tongue-and-groove paneling from a producer at the 24.75% rate deposits $7,475. End-matched paneling deposits $2,475. Our August breakdown of the Section 338 list covers how CBP decides whether a Canadian sauna crosses as a building or as boards.

A cheese importer is testing Section 338 in court

On October 20, Gellert Global Group, a New Jersey importer of Canadian cheese, sued in the US Court of International Trade to have the Section 338 tariffs declared unlawful and the duties refunded. The Liberty Justice Center brought the case (The Canadian Press). The complaint makes four arguments (International Economic Law and Policy Blog):

• Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 has impliedly repealed the 1930 provision.
• None of the Canadian measures cited is discrimination under the statute.
• The government’s reading leaves Congress’s delegation without limits.
• Duties were collected before the statute’s 30-day waiting period ran out.

The court hasn’t ruled. Tariffs have been struck down before: the Supreme Court ended the IEEPA tariffs in February. Any refund would go to the importer of record, so know who that is on your cedar.

The antidumping, countervailing and Section 338 duties apply only to Canadian goods. US-milled wood pays none of them, and European sauna wood enters under its own tariff terms. Our look at 2026 material costs covers the wider lumber and freight picture.

Before your next Canadian cedar order

• Get the 10-digit HTS number and the producer’s name for the shipment. The tariff line and the mill together set the rate, from about 20% to more than 80%.
• Ask whether the paneling is end-matched and how the importer enters it. Before relying on 4409.10.05, get a customs broker’s opinion or a binding ruling from CBP.
• Re-price open quotes. For most producers, entries from October 19 deposit about 10 points less than entries the week before, on every product above.
• Keep the entry paperwork. If the Section 338 challenge succeeds, the importer of record will need it to claim a refund.