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On July 17, the International Trade Commission will hear testimony on the preliminary tariffs on Canadian groundwood paper, from which newsprint is produced.
The News Media Alliance has asked members of Congress to testify or submit comments for this hearing, and describe the impact of these tariffs on their local newspapers and jobs their districts/states. The alliance is also asking them to argue that U.S. newsprint producers will be harmed by the tariffs as their customers reduce their consumption of newsprint by cutting pages, reducing days of delivery, and other ramifications.
Relatedly, on Wednesday, the Secretary of Commerce (who has an important and distinct role in the newsprint case) expressed interest in receiving information from newspapers on the impact of the tariffs on their businesses.
To do so, the alliance has created a survey and asks that newspapers answer as many questions as possible by July 3. Click here for the survey.
At the same time, the Stop Tariffs on Printers and Publishers coalition has initiated a citizen and employee petition against the tariffs that will be sent to the ITC around the July 17 hearing. Right now, STOPP has over 2,800 signatures, far short of our goal of 10,000.
The petition can be found at the STOPP website.
Contact the Nevada Press Association if you have any questions or you need any additional information.
The preliminary tariffs are costing publishers and printers hundreds of millions of dollars. Here is some recent coverage of the issue:
- The Washington Post: Trump’s trade war threatens the U.S. newspaper industry
- Real Clear Markets: The U.S. Should Reject a Ruinous New Tax on America’s Free Press Tradition (Forbes)
- NPR/ WNYC “On The Media” segment on newsprint tariffs
- BNA: “Paper Company, Newspapers Face Off Over Imported Canadian Paper”
- The Hill: Certain trade remedies insulate firms from needed competition
- Investor’s Business Daily: Frivolous Tariffs On Canadian Paper Undermine Serious Conversations About Trade (Whitley)
- The New York Daily News: Tariffs vs. a free press (Roff)
