Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/860755
28 PalletCentral • July-August 2017 palletcentral.com filling open positions. To an economist, this means that employers can't find people to take jobs at the existing wage rates. Interest Rates are Moving Higher With economic growth expected to continue to be near or above 2% through 2018, the Federal Reserve (Fed) Board voted to boost interest rates again in June. The projected growth rate will drive unemployment rates lower and push wage levels higher. The Fed hopes to keep growth controlled so that inflation rates will not move higher than 2%/year. Interest rates necessary to achieve this goal will keep moving higher through 2018. Update on Lumber Prices and the Trade Dispute In April, the Trump Administration accepted the complaints filed by the U.S. Lumber Coalition and started the process that could impose duties or quotas on lumber imports from Canada. The process takes time however. It took several years to negotiate a the final settlement reached in the 2006 which was called the Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA). The final settlement was fairly complex. The Canadian government agreed to impose either export duties or quotas. Each Province had its own terms under the agreement. The article in the May-June PalletCentral entitled "Industry Thought Leaders Share Two Sides of the Softwood Lumber" provides good background on the key issues. The SLA expired in 2016. One condition agreed to earlier was that ECONOMY