It's too late now, but the protection should have included US workers. Free trade is great, but this country has far too many people who wanted more, always more, MORE, MORE! and when they got is, they wanted more money because the cost of US-made goods climbed due to high wages that couldn't be controlled, often because of strongarm tactics of the unions. I'm not saying that unions are always bad, but as I have posted before, they increase costs without adding value for the user very often. They priced union workers out of jobs because it was no longer possible to compete with foreign manufacturers and they need to own that fact. Just saying "But it's better because they're in a union" is BS- I have worked with and known a lot of union workers and they certainly didn't do their jobs better- they were usually more concerned with their snack/lunch/snack breaks coming on time (Yes, those are mandatory in many jobs), hating scabs (non-union workers on the same jobsite) and striking for higher pay & benefits, intentionally hurting their employers.
The cost of farming in the US is higher than in other countries for these reasons, so it's impossible to compete on a 1:1 basis.
WRT lumber- the US has plenty, but the environmental groups won't allow harvesting it. With sensible management, we wouldn't need as much from other countries, but there aren't a lot of alternative materials that won't increase the cost of a project.
