Lumber and furniture tariff escalations delayed one year

On 31 December 2025 President Trump signed a proclamation, “Amendments to Adjusting Imports of Timber, Lumber, and Their Derivative Products Into the United States,” deferring by one year the scheduled 1 January 2026 tariff escalations established by Proclamation 10976 of 29 September 2025.¹² The deferred escalations are the step-up on kitchen cabinets and vanities (HTSUS heading 9903.76.02) from 25% to 50% and on upholstered wooden products (HTSUS heading 9903.76.03) from 25% to 30%; the new effective date for the escalations is 1 January 2027.³ The underlying 10% softwood timber/lumber rate (HTSUS heading 9903.76.01) and the existing 25% cabinet and upholstered rates, all effective since 14 October 2025 under Proclamation 10976, continue unchanged.²

1. The proclamation invokes Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, 19 U.S.C. § 1862, and § 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. § 2483 (authority to make technical and conforming amendments to the Harmonised Tariff Schedule); the President’s amendment authority under § 1862(c)(1)(B) to “adjust the imports” includes deferring a previously established effective date and does not require a new Department of Commerce investigation.⁴⁵ U.S. Customs and Border Protection implements the amendment through a Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) bulletin and a Federal Register implementing notice.⁶

2. The deferral followed sustained lobbying by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), which has estimated that the September tariff package adds materially to the cost of a typical new home, and by cabinet and furniture trade associations including the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association and the American Home Furnishings Alliance.⁷ Importers and homebuilders that had positioned inventory and pricing in anticipation of the 1 January 2026 step-up reset to the 1 January 2027 date; the underlying 10% and 25% rates that took effect in October 2025 remain in force throughout the deferred period.

3. The deferral extends the window for bilateral negotiation with principal supplier countries — Canada (dominant in softwood lumber), China and Vietnam (dominant in kitchen cabinets and upholstered wooden products), and Mexico — under the existing 10%/25% rate structure; bilateral deals concluded during the deferred period may produce country-specific exclusions from the eventual escalated rate.⁸ Softwood lumber imports from Canada remain separately subject to longstanding antidumping and countervailing duty orders under the Lumber V case.