Members of Congress urge ITC reversal of newsprint tariffs today

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Seventeen members of Congress were scheduled to testify today before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to defend 600,000 American workers in the newspaper, retail, printing and publishing industries, along with the millions of Americans who read local newspapers.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed tariffs, as high as 30 percent, on newsprint in response to claims by North Pacific Paper Company, a single paper mill operating in the pacific northwest. North Pacific is an outlier – the rest of the U.S. paper industry opposes the tariffs because they are causing deep and lasting harm to the industry's primary customers. North Pacific is owned by a New York private equity firm, with no additional pulp or paper operations in the United States or globally.

More than 11,000 Americans, from all 50 states, have already registered their opposition to the newsprint tariffs in a petition delivered to the ITC.

The STOPP coalition has assembled extensive evidence that the tariffs are already harming the U.S. printing and publishing industries. If the tariffs continue, the harm will extend to newspapers, commercial printing, and book publishing operations, and cause a ripple effect throughout the supply chain, affecting paper manufacturers, ink suppliers, fuel producers, equipment manufacturers and others.

More than 80 members of the U.S. House and Senate have written letters objecting to these tariffs and more than a quarter of senators have co-sponsored legislation requesting the U.S. Department of Commerce to pause the tariffs for an impact study.

Scheduled to testify:

  • U.S. Sen Bob Casey (D-PA)
  • U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
  • U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
  • U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL)
  • U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-ME)
  • U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)
  • U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY)
  • U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)
  • U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)
  • U.S. Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX)
  • U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY)
  • U.S. Rep. David B. McKinley (R-WV)
  • U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
  • U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC)
  • U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME)
  • U.S. Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN)
  • U.S. Rep. David Trott (R-MI)
STOPP, newsprint, tariffs
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