US President Donald Trump's fresh tariffs on imported wood, furniture and kitchen cabinets took effect on Tuesday, a development likely to fuel building costs and pile pressure on homebuyers in an already challenging market.

The duties were imposed to boost US industries and protect national security, according to the White House, and they broaden a slate of sector-specific tariffs Trump has imposed since returning to the presidency.

The latest salvo features a 10-percent tariff on imports of softwood lumber, while duties on certain upholstered furniture and kitchen cabinets start at 25 percent.

Come January 1, the rate on imported upholstered furniture is set to rise to 30 percent, while those on kitchen cabinets and vanities will jump to 50 percent.

But duties on wood products from Britain will not exceed 10 percent, and those from the European Union and Japan face a 15-percent ceiling. All three trading partners have reached deals with the Trump administration to avert harsher duties.

But the new tariffs will "create additional headwinds for an already challenged housing market by further raising construction and renovation costs," warned National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) chairman Buddy Hughes.

US home sales have been gloomy in recent years with high mortgage rates and limited inventory pushing costs up for buyers.

In imposing the latest duties, Trump said US wood production "remains underdeveloped" and that the Commerce Secretary found that "wood products are used in critical functions of the Department of War, including building infrastructure for operational testing".

But Hughes said: "Imposing these tariffs under a 'national security' pretext ignores the importance housing plays to the physical and economic security of all Americans."

Canada, the top supplier of lumber to the United States, is set to be impacted, with the 10-percent lumber tariff stacks on anti-dumping and countervailing duties that the United States recently more than doubled to 35 percent, bringing the duties to 45 percent.

Stephen Brown of Capital Economics said that with 30 percent of lumber sourced from abroad, a 10-percent tariff could raise the cost of building an average home by US$2,200.

Brown added that China, Vietnam and Mexico account for the bulk of US furniture imports.

"The US gets 27 percent of its furniture imports from China and then almost 20 percent from both Vietnam and Mexico," he said,

Brown expects Vietnam could face the biggest impact "as furniture makes up 10 percent of its exports to the US." The corresponding figures are smaller at 4 percent for China and 2.5 percent for Mexico. (AFP)