Organizations turn up the heat on newsprint tariffs
On July 17, the International Trade Commission will hear testimony on the preliminary tariffs on newsprint products from Canada.
Those involved in the Stop Tariffs on Printers and Publishers coalition have asked members of Congress to testify or submit comments for this hearing, and describe the impact of these tariffs on their local newspapers and jobs their districts/states.
Paul Boyle, senior vice president for public policy at the News Media Alliance, said the plan is to argue that U.S. newsprint producers will be harmed by the tariffs as their customers reduce their consumption of newsprint by cutting pages and reducing days of delivery.
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who has an important and distinct role in the newsprint case, has expressed interest in receiving information from newspapers on the effect of the tariffs on their businesses.
Boyle said: "We need your help to promote newspaper participation in an industry survey so that we can collect data that can be shared with members of Congress and the Department of Commerce."
We ask that newspapers answer as many questions as possible by July 3 by going to this Survey Monkey site.
The Stop Tariffs on Printers and Publishers coalition has initiated a citizen and employee petition against the tariffs that will be sent to the ITC around the July 17 hearing. The petition is far short of its goal of 10,000 signatures, Boyle said.
Boyle said the preliminary tariffs are currently costing publishers and printers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Ads such as the one above are also available for you to publish in your newspapers.