WASHINGTON (Yosefardi) – Tuesday’s unanimous affirmative vote by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on the petitions brought at both the ITC and the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) on Jan. 21, 2015, by the United Steelworkers (USW) and four U.S. paper manufacturers brings much needed relief to the industry.
The four manufacturers are Packaging Corporation of America (PCA), Domtar Corporation, Finch Paper LLC, and P.H. Glatfelter Company.
The ITC has found that dumped, unfairly priced imports of certain types of uncoated paper in sheets from China, Indonesia, Brazil, Portugal and Australia are causing material injury.
They also found that during that same time, illegally subsidized imports from China and Indonesia were also causing material injury.
During the period of these investigations, eight U.S. mills that produce uncoated paper were forced to close. They had been faced with a dramatic increase in unfairly traded imports which resulted in the loss of thousands of paper jobs.
Unfairly priced imports from the five countries named in the petitions were decimating U.S. producers and workers.
The effort to stop the dumping and subsidies was supported by dozens of Congressional and state officials from both parties.
Dumping occurs when a product is sold in the United States at a price below what it costs to produce or what it is sold for in the home country. Countervailing duties are imposed on imports that are subsidized by foreign governments.
Last month, Commerce determined dumping margins ranging up to 222.46 percent against the five countries and subsidy rates of up to 176.75 percent against China and Indonesia.
The petitions had asked the ITC and Commerce, the agencies responsible for investigating illegal trade practices, to impose duties to offset the dumping from all five countries and to offset the subsidies on imports from China and Indonesia.