The U.S. Department of Commerce has reduced duties against Canadian newsprint producers, but companies will still face additional costs when they ship products south of the border.
“This was a complicated and unique case. The department worked hard to address the arguments raised, and I am satisfied that the final determinations appropriately targets bad actors,” stated U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in a release.
Preliminary countervailing and antidumping duties on uncoated groundwood – which ran as high as 32.09 per cent when combined – were lowered on Thursday in a final decision from the commerce department.
Richmond-based Catalyst Paper will be the only company in Canada subject to an antidumping surcharge, while countervailing costs will range between 0.82 per cent and 9.81 per cent for all Canadian producers.
In total, Catalyst is now facing duties of 20.26 per cent, down from preliminary duties of 22.16 per cent.
While not surprised, Catalyst president and CEO Ned Dwyer says the company is disappointed.
“This onerous U.S. trade action directly affects the competitiveness of our business,” said Dwyer in a statement issued Thursday afternoon.
“While our mills have provided newsprint to the U.S. for more than 100 years, we’re now changing our customer base to minimize the impact of these duties because of one U.S. mill, but this isn’t sustainable over the long term.”
Last year, Washington's North Pacific Paper Company filed a petition alleging dumping margins of between 23.45 per cent and 54.97 per cent.
On September 17, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is expected to make its own independent determination on dumping and subsidization. If the commission agrees with the commerce department – that Canadian exports materially injure or threaten to materially injure U.S. industry – duty orders will be issued.
If the ITC makes a negative determination, the investigations will be terminated.
Bruce Ralston, B.C.’s Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology, said in a prepared statement that the province is “very frustrated and concerned about the continued effect these unwarranted punitive duties will have on B.C.'s forest sector and on the families in communities across B.C. whose livelihoods rely on it.”
He added that the provincial and federal governments “demonstrated clearly during the investigation that they are not subsidizing Catalyst's operations, and the Department of Commerce's decision to continue to apply duties of over 20 per cent on Catalyst's exports is upsetting.”
Ralston called on the U.S. International Trade Commission “to do what is right and determine that the U.S. industry has not been injured, and overturn the Department of Commerce's decision."
hwoodin@biv.com
@hayleywoodin
