By David Chavern, News Media Alliance
We applaud the International Trade Commission (ITC) for today reaching a final, unanimous negative determination that Canadian imports of uncoated groundwood paper, which includes newsprint used by newspapers, do not cause material harm to the U.S. paper industry.
The Department of Commerce recently upheld the tariffs and, though they revised them to slightly lower levels (but still as high as 20 percent), the tariffs would have been unsustainable for newspapers and other printers and publishers.
Fortunately, our voice was heard at the ITC hearing last month, and they made the right call today in reversing these harmful tariffs.
Over the last several months, while the Department of Commerce and the ITC conducted their investigations into the trade case (brought by one paper mill, NORPAC), we have emphasized that the decades-long shift of news and information from print to digital platforms – not imports from Canada – is the cause of the decline in demand for newsprint.
Local papers provide essential coverage of local governments and community news and events. In many communities, the local paper is the only source of community news. Unfortunately, the damage to newspapers from preliminary tariffs imposed by the Department of Commerce since January has already been done. The tariffs have disrupted the newsprint market, increasing newsprint costs by nearly 30 percent and forcing many newspapers to reduce their print distribution and cut staff.
We hope today’s reversal of these newsprint tariffs will restore stability to the market and that publishers will see a full and quick recovery. Our democracy depends on it.
