Canadian newsprint to be taxed

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commerce Department is going ahead with a tax on Canadian newsprint, a threat to the struggling American newspaper industry.

The revised tariffs unveiled Thursday are mostly lower than those imposed earlier this year. But they would still hit the paper used by newspapers and other publications with an anti-dumping border tax as high as 16.88 percent.

The tariffs are a response to a complaint from a hedge fund-owned paper producer in Washington state, which argues that its Canadian competitors are taking advantage of government subsidies to sell their product at unfairly low prices. Still, Commerce decided to spare two Canadian producers from the antidumping charges.

In addition to antidumping duties, Commerce is imposing newsprint levies ranging from 0.82 percent to 9.81 percent to counter Canadian subsidies.

The Commerce decision is not final. The independent U.S. International Trade Commission could change or kill the tariffs in a ruling scheduled for next month.

Newsprint is usually the second-highest cost for newspapers. Already contending with falling readership and advertising revenue, newspapers are struggling as the tariffs drive up the cost of newsprint.

The Robesonian newspaper in Lumberton, N.C., for instance, last week announced it was dropping its eight-page color comics sections from its Sunday edition to cut costs.

Susan Rowell, president of the National Newspaper Association and publisher of the Lancaster News in South Carolina, said, “We appreciate the Commerce Department’s more careful review of the paper markets. But this use of trade laws … still puts communities at risk of losing their local newspapers.”

Congress is opposed to the tariffs on the paper used by newspapers and other publications.