ARLINGTON, Va. (News release) -- Members of the printing, publishing and paper-producing industries, which employ more than 600,000 workers, are announcing the formation of Stop Tariffs on Printers & Publishers (STOPP), a coalition to fight proposed countervailing duties (CVD) and anti-dumping duties (AD) on imports of Canadian uncoated groundwood papers, including newsprint and other papers. These preliminary duties, which were assessed by the Department of Commerce in January and March, respectively, are the result of a petition filed by one company, North Pacific Paper Co. (NORPAC), an outlier in the paper industry that is looking to use the U.S. government for its own financial gain.
The STOPP coalition is concerned that these CVD and AD duties, which range up to 32 percent combined, will saddle U.S. printing and publishing businesses with increased costs and threaten thousands of American jobs.
The Coalition is asking the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Congress to reject these newsprint tariffs and protect U.S. jobs. With the announcement, STOPP has launched a new website: www.stopnewsprinttariffs.org and is inviting other interested parties to join in the fight to overturn these tariffs.
Members of the STOPP coalition include: American Society of News Editors, Association of Alternative Newsmedia, Association of American Publishers, Association for Print Technologies, Book Manufacturer's Institute, Catalyst Paper, Inland Press Association, Kruger, Local Search Association, National Newspaper Association, News Media Alliance, Printing Industries of America, Quad/Graphics, Rayonier Advance Materials, Resolute Forest Products, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, Trusted Media Brands (formerly Readers Digest Association), Valassis Communications, and Worzalla.
The impact of these tariffs on newspapers, paper producers, book publishers and others has the potential to be devastating to entire industries.
"Newsprint is the second largest expense for small newspapers after human resource costs," explained Susan Rowell, publisher of the Lancaster (SC) News and president of the National Newspaper Association. "A decision by the federal government to impose tariffs on our paper supply would imperil our news-gathering missions and put jobs in jeopardy at our newspapers and at many other organizations and companies in our communities that rely upon a healthy newspaper."
"The bottom line is these tariffs on uncoated groundwood paper would not protect domestic paper producers. Paper manufacturers are not able to absorb the cost of the tariff and have already let it be known that the tariff will be passed on to U.S. consumers," stated Joel Quadracci, chairman, president & CEO of Quad/Graphics. "This will result in driving up the costs of print and force an even faster migration to digital options at a time when our industry is already being severely disrupted. This will result in the loss of U.S. jobs. In the case of rural residents with no broadband access, they will end up underserved with no newspaper either."
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