(Editorial Board note: This editorial is running in GateHouse Media publications, in print and online, across Ohio today. This Editorial Board, while not the author of this piece, supports its position fully.)
Some hope is on the horizon that an unjustified and damaging tariff on newsprint imported from Canada could be lifted, and that's good news for anyone who reads this or any other U.S. newspaper.
We urge U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman to support the PRINT Act, which not only would suspend the newsprint tariff, but also would call for the Department of Commerce to conduct a study of the economic health of the printing and publishing industries in the U.S.
Spoiler alert: The economic health of the printing and publishing industries in the U.S. is challenged, first and foremost by the explosion of digital publishing of all kinds in the past two decades. The added burden of tariffs on paper — some as high as 32 percent — could be crippling.
Ironically, the single paper mill that sought the tariff cited tough times in the paper business as justification. NORPAC, based in Washington state and owned by a New York hedge firm, argued that demand for its newsprint has declined and blamed Canadian newsprint producers, accusing them of dumping their product at below-competitive prices.
The fact is, publishers in North America are using 75 percent less newsprint, whatever the source, than they did in 2000, primarily because advertisers are using more digital outlets and newspapers are shrinking or closing.
And Canadian mills aren't getting U.S. newspapers' business solely on price. If every paper mill in the U.S. were running at full capacity, they could produce only about 60 percent of the newsprint used in U.S. newspapers.
No other newsprint mill in the U.S. supported NORPAC's request for the tariff, and it's notable that the lead sponsors of the PRINT (Protecting Rational Incentives in Newsprint Trade) Act, Republican Susan Collins and Independent Angus King, are from Maine — a major paper-producing state.
Since preliminary collections of the tariff began in January, newspapers have seen newsprint-price increases of 30 to 40 percent. Because it was imposed suddenly, companies hadn't planned for it in their 2018 budgets, and resulting cuts have been painful.
The tariff isn't officially approved by the International Trade Commission yet; a public hearing is scheduled for July, and a final call by the ITC is expected in August or September.
If the PRINT Act passes, collection would stop while the Department of Commerce study is conducted. It would require the Commerce secretary to issue a report to the president and Congress within 90 days, and says the ITC cannot finally approve the tariff until the president certifies he has read the report and agrees a tariff is appropriate.
A valid study almost certainly would show the U.S. newspaper and printing industries can't sustain the price increases a newsprint tariff would bring. It also could have the added benefit of raising public awareness of the very real danger that communities large and small could lose their best sources of local news.
Investigating local news and holding public officials accountable are essential elements of democracy, and they have been the primary business of good newspapers since the nation's beginnings.
Newspapers are working hard to meet today's challenges and make the transition to serving readers digitally. But printed newspapers remain essential to millions of readers across the U.S., and the newsprint tariff threatens our ability, literally, to deliver.
The Senate should pass the PRINT Act.