WASHINGTON (From news reports) -- Leaders in the newspaper industry have pledged to fight new tariffs on the paper that they use to print their publications.

The News Media Alliance, a group representing 1,100 newspapers across the country, has vowed to oppose the Commerce Department's preliminary decision, made Jan. 9, to impose countervailing duties on imports of groundwood paper produced in Canada.

The Canadian government had been providing subsidies to their paper industry, which prompted North Pacific Paper Company, or NORPAC, a mill in Norview, Washington, to ask the government for the duties. NORPAC, owned by a hedge fund, was the only mill in the U.S. to complain.

There are about 25 groundwood producers in Canada. The new duties will vary by producer, but they will range from 4.43 percent to 9.93 percent. Those new costs no doubt will be passed along to buyers.

Groundwood paper is used to print newspapers across the country. Some book publishers and paper companies also employ groundwood for their products.

NORPAC's petition, filed in August, had drawn opposition from newspaper leaders, who said the additional costs of newsprint could put some newspaper companies out of business.

David Chavern, president and CEO of the NMA, use fiery language in a statement to single out NORPAC: "We are stunned that a single U.S. mill ... has been able to manipulate the trade laws to their gain, while potentially wreaking financial havoc on newspapers and other commercial publishers across the country."

NORPAC is an outlier, Chavern argued. Its "petitions do not reflect the views of the domestic paper industry and demonstrate a lack of understanding of the market."

He added, "The well-documented decline in the U.S. newsprint market is not due to unfair trade, but to a decade-long shift from print to digital distribution of news and information.

Chavern warned of a domino effect. "These tariffs will saddle publishers with additional costs that will hasten the newspaper industry's shift to digital and, consequentially, accelerate the decline in both the printed newspaper and newsprint industries." He said. "There will be no winners."

The battle is not over, Chavern vowed. The NORPAC petitions now are under consideration at both Commerce and the International Trade Commission. "We will take every possible measure to fight this misguided case as it moves through the investigation process," he said.

The NMA is likely to emphasize that jobs are at stake. Chavern said that the American newspaper publishing and commercial printing industry employs more than 600,000 people across the country. And the newspaper business alone accounts for more than 175,000 jobs, he said.

That the Commerce Department would impose the tariff, despite nearly universal opposition in the newspaper and publishing industry, may not be surprising.

President Trump, in his first year in office, made his views on trade clear: "I want tariffs," he told a group of his advisors last summer when retired Gen. John Kelly became chief of staff.

The people at the Commerce Department apparently got the message.

The NMA won't be alone in its fight as the tariff investigation continues this year.

The National Newspaper Association is the country's largest trade association, representing 2,200 community newspapers. The NNA will be right by the NMA's side.

Susan Rowell, NNA president, said in an email to members, "We join our colleagues at the News Media Alliance in fighting back against this ill-advised trade action. Instead of protecting American jobs, as the Department of Commerce is mandated to do, it puts in jeopardy the jobs of thousands of people in our industry, the printing industry and related trades and professions."

She added, "We must make sure Congress understands the gravity of this threat."

Some members of Congress already have noticed. Thirty-four members of the House and eight members of the Senate already have signed letters to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the ITC, asking that NORPAC's request be denied.

The task for the NMA, the NNA and others in the industry is to get legislators to move past letter-writing and to start hearings and bill-writing.

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