WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Commerce Department is going ahead with a tax on Canadian newsprint, a threat to the already-struggling American newspaper industry.
The revised tariffs unveiled Thursday are mostly lower than those originally imposed earlier this year but would still slap an anti-dumping border tax as high as 16.88 percent.
Congress is overwhelmingly opposed to the tariffs. House Speaker Paul Ryan contacted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross directly to voice his concerns. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared in a newspaper column that the tax “would do irreversible harm” to the newspaper industry.
The tariffs are a response to a complaint from a hedge fund-owned paper producer in Washington state, which argues that its Canadian competitors are taking advantage of government subsidies to sell their product at unfairly low prices.