The U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to uphold duties imposed on Canadian newsprint imports.
The vote comes as U.S. newspapers have campaigned heavily to lift the duties that have pushed a major expense higher and forced layoffs at some American newspapers.
The U.S. Commerce Department imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties of various levels on Canadian producers, including Resolute Forest Product (TSE: RFP), Catalyst Paper Corp. (TSX: CYT) and Kruger Inc. earlier this year. The duties came about after Washington-based North Pacific Paper Co. complained that Canada was dumping newsprint into the American market and unfairly subsidizing its industry at home.
It is the same argument made regarding Canada's softwood lumber industry, which led to the imposition of both countervailing and anti-dumping duties on most Canadian softwood exports to the United States.
The U.S. says $1.21 billion U.S. worth of uncoated ground wood paper used for newspapers, commercial printing and book publishing was imported from Canada last year.
However, several U.S. publishers have made it known to Congress in Washington, D.C. that the duties are hurting American newspapers more than they are harming the Canadian newsprint industry – noting that the duties come at a time of steep declines in advertising revenue across the entire newspaper industry.
