Canadian Subsidies Hurting Maine Papermakers

The Coalition for Fair Paper Imports, which includes Madison Paper Industries and Verso Paper, had asked the department to investigate the subsidies back in February.

Starting as early as next week, a 20 percent tariff will be collected at the U.S. border for shipments of a type of paper manufactured at the Port Hawkesbury Paper Mill in Nova Scotia.

A Canadian paper mill says it will defend against a decision by the U.S. government concerning subsidies on supercalendered paper products.

It was announced Tuesday, according to Madison Paper Industries President Russ Drechsel.

But the decision is being criticized by Catalyst Paper Corp., the Canadian company that purchased the former NewPage mill in Rumford past year. He added, “We also applaud the Commerce Department’s resolve not to break with precedent and to uphold its established investigative process regarding the number of respondents it considers in a countervailing duty trade case”.

In their formal petition to U.S. trade officials, the companies alleged prices for Canadian imports were as much as 5.2 percent lower in the last half of 2014 and that subsidies have depressed U.S. prices and reduced their revenue. We don’t want to see more lost jobs in this country caused by unfair imports, and this preliminary decision is a good step in preventing that. As part of the Commerce Department’s decision, an 11.9% duty is being imposed on Catalyst and other Canadian exporters. The company is seeking an expedited review of the final ruling.