NEWSPRINT TARIFFS BLOCKED
WASHINGTON — In a victory for the American newspaper industry, the U.S. International Trade Commission on Wednesday blocked tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported newsprint, finding that American producers weren’t harmed by imports from Canadian paper mills.
The newspaper industry had complained that the rising cost of newsprint, typically their second-biggest expense, made it harder to operate.
Members of a coalition of printers and publishers hailed the ruling, calling it “a great day for American journalism.”
“The ITC’s decision will help to preserve the vitality of local newspapers and prevent additional job losses in the printing and publishing sectors,” said David Chavern, president and CEO of the News Media Alliance.
“These tariffs were extremely harmful to our regional papers-the lifeblood of our local communities,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted. “ITC made exactly the right decision to completely eliminate them. I will remain vigilant to make sure that they never return.”
The Commerce Department had imposed the tariffs in response to a complaint from a hedge-fund-owned paper producer in Washington state that argued that its Canadian competitors took advantage of government subsidies to sell their product at unfairly low prices.
The department had revised the tariffs lower in a decision this month. But under U.S. law, the two-part process for making the tariffs permanent also requires the ITC to find that the U.S. paper industry was harmed or threatened by the imports from Canada. The commission unanimously determined that no injury is occurring.
The North Pacific Paper Company had petitioned the federal government for tariffs to offset subsidies provided to Canadian paper mills. The company had told the ITC that prices had dropped so low for its paper that it could not justify keeping all three of its machines running. The company can appeal the commission’s ruling and said it is assessing options.