US Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Sector NAICS 11

Jun 16, 2025 - US Investing in Timber Production

• The US Department of Agriculture in May announced a $200 million investment to expand timber production in the US. The funds were allocated to implement the Forest Service’s National Active Forest Management Strategy (NAFMS) to increase timber harvest, improve forest health and productivity, reduce wildfire risk, and support rural prosperity in forest communities, according to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins. The NAFMS supports President Trump’s March executive order titled “Immediate Expansion of Timber Production,” that leverages emergency authorities to streamline regulations and speed permitting to fast-track logging projects on public lands. The USDA says the investment will “support efforts to work across jurisdictions and property lines to improve forest health,” and “also focuses on innovative wood products like cross-laminated timber,” among other efforts. Critics, including environmentalists and former Forest Service employees, called the investment “a $200 million taxpayer-funded subsidy to the timber industry.”
• Migrant workers appear to be braving the threat of deportation by continuing to show up for work, The Wall Street Journal reports. WSJ noted that while data covering immigrants lacking permanent legal status is fragmentary, what’s available shows no broad pullback from the labor force, including on farms. A spokeswoman for the American Farm Bureau Federation said that while some farmers report employees afraid to come to work, “We are not aware of widespread interruptions in farm operations due to employees’ absenteeism.” To allay concerns about a shortage of agricultural workers President Trump in April said he was looking into allowing undocumented farm and hospitality workers to voluntarily leave the country for a short time before reentering the country legally, Bloomberg reported. Nearly half (45%) of all agricultural workers in the US – 950,000 of an estimated 2.2 million farmworkers – are "unauthorized" migrants working illegally on farms and ranches.

• Tariffs on imported seafood would cause prices to rise, making US products more competitive in a market dominated by lower priced imports, Aquaculture North America reports. The US is a net importer of fish and seafood, with imports accounting for more than 79% of the seafood Americans consumed in 2020, according to NOAA Fisheries. The value of seafood imports exceeded exports in 2023, creating a trade deficit of about $20.3 billion. The high tide of imports has put downward pressure on seafood prices and limits revenue for domestic aquaculture operations. However, tariffs cut both ways. Because Canada and China are the top two destinations for US seafood exports, catches are vulnerable to reciprocal tariffs. Maine and Massachusetts account for 99% of Canada’s lobster imports, while China’s imports of US salmon nearly tripled between 2020 and 2023, per the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
• Prior to the US-China truce to lower import taxes, US soybean exports faced a 115% tariff entering China, Farm Journal reports. While American soybean exports to China have been falling since 2018, China remains the top destination for US soybeans. During the first Trump administration’s 2018 trade war with China, US agriculture suffered over $27 billion in losses, with soybeans accounting for 71% of those losses, according to the American Soybean Association (ASA). Since then, China has been reducing its purchases of US farm products, including corn and soybeans, and purchasing more from other countries, notably Brazil. China isn’t the only market soybean farmers are worried about. “The announcement of 10% baseline tariffs on all countries and additional, individualized tariff rates on approximately 60 countries impacts all of US soy’s top 10 export markets," according to ASA, adding "This includes No. 1 export market China.”