In Virginia, prospect of a retaliatory 25 percent tariff by China has chopped into a promising export business.

Sales to China "literally stopped overnight" when the country said it would impose a 25 percent tariff on imported US hardwoods. Michael Snow, executive director of the Sterling, Virginia-based American Hardwood Export Council, said the US exported $2.6 billion of hardwood lumber overseas in 2017, and approximately $1.5 billion went to China. American companies exported $854 million of hardwood logs to foreign countries, with $563 million going to China.