The United Steelworkers (USW) joined with NewPage Corp., Appleton Coated LLC and Sappi Fine Paper North America in filing trade petitions, for antidumping and anti-subsidy duties, against Chinese and Indonesian imports of certain types of coated paper.
USW, which represents about 6,000 production workers at paper mills operated by the previously mentioned three companies (in nine American states), claims the unfair trade practices carried out by paper producers in China and Indonesia “have eliminated thousands of domestic jobs.” Over 130,000 workers are represented by the USW in the paper and forestry products industry. The union claims to have measured a loss of more than 60,000 jobs across this sector since 2002.
The new petitions focus on job cuts over the past five years. According a USW statement, “The petitions estimate an increase of 40 percent from total imports of coated paper have flooded into the U.S. market – jumping from 131,687 tonnes in the first six months of 2008 to 185,422 tonnes in the first six months of 2009. Imports from the two countries [China and Indonesia] together account for nearly 30 percent of the domestic market.”
The petitions were filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, DC.
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