Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and Congresswoman Liz Cheney, all R-Wyo., applauded the decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) Wednesday that reversed the tariffs on uncoated groundwood paper imported from Canada, which increased the cost of newsprint used for newspapers.
The USITC, an independent federal agency that rules on antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, made the determination that the uncoated groundwood from Canada does not injure the U.S. industry.
“It is a relief that the U.S. International Trade Commission has ended these tariffs that were already hurting our newspapers in Wyoming and the communities they serve,” Enzi said. “Our local papers play a vital role in the state and shouldn’t have to struggle to survive because of these tariffs that were being pushed by one company.”
“The International Trade Commission made the right decision today to eliminate tariffs on imported newsprint,” Barrasso said. “Families in Wyoming rely on their local newspapers for coverage of local and national news, as well as community events. These punishing tariffs have significantly increased costs for publishers, hampered production and threatened good jobs at newspapers across our state. Now that they have been removed, Wyoming’s newspapers can renew their focus on keeping communities informed and up to date.”
“I’m pleased the International Trade Commission heard the concerns of Wyoming newspapers and unanimously voted to reverse the tariffs on uncoated groundwood paper,” Cheney said. “Local newspapers in Wyoming are small businesses that rely on uncoated groundwood paper to provide essential local and national news coverage to communities, sometimes as their only news source. The ITC made the right decision.”
The Wyoming delegation submitted testimony last month to the USITC asking them to end the tariffs after taking into account the devastating effects they could have on local papers.
“We are immensely gratified today by the International Trade Commission’s vote not to impose permanent tariffs upon the North American newsprint supply. The paper markets serving community newspapers can soon begin to move back to market pricing without the heavy hand of government imposing taxes upon the primary suppliers of newsprint,” said National Newspaper Association President Susan Rowell, publisher of the Lancaster (SC) News.
“We will not know until mid-September the commission’s rationale for its vote of 5-0 against continuing newsprint tariffs. We understand it will take a couple of months for the preliminary tariffs to be unwound and credits to be issued back to those companies who had paid duties at the border since last January. But it is an enormous relief to know that the ITC does not find a basis for continuing sanctions.
“Our efforts to educate the commission about the realities of today’s printing and publishing world were part of a large coalition of industries, led by the News Media Alliance and Resolute Inc., which supplies much of the U.S.-produced newsprint. The leadership of the law firm Covington and Burling and contributions of time and talent by so many publishers, editors, communicators of all sorts, and members of the public who joined a petition against the tariffs were all contributors to today’s result. We are particularly grateful to Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine, and Rep. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and all of their co-sponsors for introducing the PRINT Act of 2018 in support of our views.”