NEW YORK, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico could increase the cost of construction materials in the United States, and his plan to deport illegal immigrants could cause grave trouble for the building industry, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday.
Overall, about 7.3 percent of home-building materials in the United States are imported, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Softwood lumber, used to frame buildings, often comes from Canada, which now has a tariff of 14.54 percent.
The United States is also the world's top importer of the crucial housing materials iron and steel. About a quarter of the country's 43 billion U.S. dollars in imported iron and steel came from Canada as of 2022, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Another key home-builder import from both Mexico and Canada is cement. The United States imported 512 million dollars of cement from Canada and 254 million dollars from Mexico in 2022. Gypsum, which is used to make drywall, is also imported from both countries and has already jumped nearly 50 percent in price since 2020, NAHB said.
Meanwhile, in Texas, California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, immigrants make up more than half of construction trade workers, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Undocumented workers make up an estimated 13 percent of the construction industry, more than twice that of the overall workforce, according to a recent estimate from Pew Research Center.
"Home builders are already starting to brace for deportation and trade policies. Industry lobbyists have warned the Trump transition team that the policies could have a chilling effect on builders and the overall market," the report noted.
