Labor & Employment Law

Trade Commission Orders Duties on Paper Imports

By James Parks

The Obama administration today continued to support American workers by deciding to apply tariffs to subsidized and dumped coated paper imports from China and Indonesia. 

The unanimous vote by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) clears the way for the U.S. Department of Commerce to immediately impose antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of coated paper from these countries. 

United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said the vote was a “strong confirmation” of the injuries suffered by American paper makers and workers.

Trade laws between nations must be enforced with government fact finding and the power to defend jobs and industries with strong tariff penalties for import violations.

The USW joined in the original petition filed last September by Appleton Coated LLC., NewPage Corp., and Sappi Fine Paper North America. Coated paper covered by the cases is used in many high-end commercial printing applications, including annual reports, coffee table books, magazines and brochures. The three companies combined employ about 6,000 production workers?all USW members?at 20 paper mills operating in seven states.

USW Vice President Jon Geenen said:

 Today?s decision shows that these predatory trade practices by the Chinese and Indonesian exporters are unfair, illegal and injurious to our employers and their workers. We will not ignore the efforts of foreign competitors who want to violate international trade standards to succeed at the expense of our union members? jobs — that?s a fight we?ll never back away from.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 22, 2010 (boomark / email).