ITC finds U.S. paper industry harmed by Canadian import

The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that a domestic industry is harmed by imports of supercalendered paper from Canada, which the Commerce Department said are subsidized by the Canadian government.    The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that a domestic industry is harmed by imports of so-called “supercalendered” paper from Canada, which the Commerce Department said are subsidized by the Canadian government.
   As a result, the Commerce Department will issue a countervailing duty order on imports of this product from Canada, ITC said.
   Countervailable subsidies are financial assistance from foreign governments to encourage and support domestic industries to export, rather than import similar, cost-competitive products from abroad. 
   The Commerce Department had recently determined that imports of supercalendered paper from Canada have received countervailable subsidies ranging from 17.87 percent to 20.18 percent. Specifically, Canada’s Port Hawkesbury Paper and Resolute FP Canada received final subsidy rates of 20.18 percent and 17.87 percent, while other producers/exporters of this paper in Canada have been assigned a final subsidy rate of 18.85 percent by the Commerce Department.
  The petitioner for the Commerce Department and ITC investigation is The Coalition for Fair Paper Imports, which is an ad-hoc trade group of U.S. manufacturers of supercalendered paper consisting, including Madison Paper Industries in Maine and Verso Corp. of Ohio. The petition was also supported by the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union.
   Supercalender paper is uncoated paper that has undergone a “calendering process” in which the base sheet, made of pulp and filler (typically, but not limited to, clay, talc, or other mineral additive), is processed through a set of supercalenders, a supercalender, or a soft nip calender operation.
   In 2014, imports of supercalendered paper from Canada were valued at an estimated $868.4 million, according to the Commerce Department.