Bill introduced to suspend newsprint tariffs

May 16, 2018

Speaking on behalf of the NNA Board of Directors, I am writing to assure you that we know the devastating impacts of increased printing costs from the US tariffs on Canadian newsprint are hammering you like a Category 5 hurricane.

We are doing everything we can to counter them. We hope to persuade the Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission to remove the tariffs after their final determination in September. Until then, our job is to make all policymakers understand how harmful these tariffs are.

I am attaching a bill that was introduced today under the sponsorship of Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Angus King (I-ME) to require Commerce to suspend the tariffs while it carries out a study on the impact of the tariffs on the newspaper industry.

Thanks to the rapid work of many of you, the bill was dropped in with an unusually strong bipartisan coalition of original co-sponsors: Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Doug Jones (D-AL), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Roger Wicker (R-MS).
 
For your own editorials,  I am also attaching a press release that News Media Alliance (NMA) issued today when the bill was filed. It contains a comment from me and from others in our STOPP Coalition (Stop the Tariff on Printers and Publishers.)  Our thanks to NMA for its continued leadership in organizing our coalition.

I ask that you make every effort in the next few weeks to persuade your senators to join as sponsors. If they cannot, please ask them to send a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and to the International Trade Commission. NNA’s Washington Office is standing by to help your senators to understand how to draft these letters. Many have already been sent to Ross, but we now need to focus on the ITC, which will hold a hearing July 17. Talking points for your editorial use are on the NNA website here.
 
We believe in newspapers. Keep the faith.

Susan Rowell
NNA President
Publisher of the Lancaster (SC) News

For more information, contact NNA Director of Public Policy Tonda F. Rush at tonda@nna.org.