If you like holding this newspaper in your hands as you read, then good news!
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
I am gratified by the International Trade Commission’s vote to not impose permanent tariffs on the Canadian newsprint we use here at Gallatin Publishing Company. The rationale for this decision is yet to be revealed, but the unanimous 5-0 vote on Aug. 29 renews my faith that right can prevail.
First, there is a point of clarification I feel compelled to share with you. I previously linked the tariff petition with farm tariff positions proposed by the White House. That insinuation was wrong. Correctly stated, the petition to put a tariff on newsprint came from a single American company using existing trade laws.
The president does have some power to impose tariffs under his national security authority, as he did in the steel/aluminum cases, but there has been no indication that such an action is considered in the newsprint cases.
Although heartened by this ITC decision, the damage in some respects is already done.
Many decisions made across the paper-reliant industries that have occurred over the past seven months may be permanent. Some newspapers across the country have folded. Many have trimmed pages or paper sizes. Lots of jobs went unfilled. Decisions by some producers to get out of the market because of the tariffs could still affect the supply/demand balance.
Whether removing the tariffs will enable any of these decisions to be modified is unknown. My homework in trying to figure out the impact for our printing customers can now go to the trash bin. But, in reality, it’s not that simple.
The prices we pay for newsprint have increased substantially since January (up 12%, from $651 to $739 per short ton) when Canadian suppliers were forced to pay the proposed new tax at the border. A change in the tax was implemented in March (20% increase, lowered from an initial 30% increase), and Canadian paper companies have been paying at the border since then. Deposits have been held by the U.S. government awaiting final determination.
We’re told that the money paid in by the producers thus far will be sorted out and returned. The whole process takes a couple of months. Will our newsprint prices decrease back to levels before this fiasco was attempted? We can only hope so. The market will determine that.
Regardless, the ITC’s vote announced last Wednesday is good news, welcomed here and as refreshing as last week’s 2-inch rain that (hopefully) broke months and months of drought.
The National Newspaper Association, of which we are members, points to a lot of work in securing this decision. I read where our specific newsprint provider, Resolute Inc., took a lead part in the coalition of industries opposing the tariff. It also took a law firm, sympathetic elected officials, and a groundswell of opinion expressed by publishers, editors, and communicators of all sorts including voices from the general public.
My point in sharing all this? Getting involved matters.