NORCROSS, GA – Unisource Worldwide, Inc., one of the leading distributors of paper, packaging and facility supplies in North America, is supporting the U.S. paper industry’s antidumping and countervailing duty petitions filed today covering imports of certain coated paper from the People’s Republic of China and Indonesia.
 
“A strong American paper manufacturing industry is essential to maintaining our vital domestic paper supply sources, serving our diverse customer base, and providing paper products to consumers throughout the United States,” said Al Dragone, CEO of Unisource.  “Unisource supports this action which will ultimately lead to additional investment in the U.S. economy and a much stronger and healthier domestic paper industry.”
 
The petition was filed on behalf of Appleton Coated LLC, NewPage Corporation, Sappi Fine Paper North America, and the United Steelworkers of America.  The industry seeks to have the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, the agencies responsible for investigating unfair trade practices, impose duties to offset alleged Chinese government subsidization and dumping.  The paper products covered by the petitions include coated paper used in high-quality writing, printing, and other graphic applications using sheet-fed presses, whether in finished sheet form or in semi-finished roll form, with a GE brightness rating of 80 or higher.
 
Under the antidumping and countervailing duty statutes, the International Trade Commission is expected to make a preliminary injury determination in November 2009 and the Department of Commerce is expected to issue preliminary determinations in the countervailing duty and antidumping duty cases in December 2009 and March 2010, respectively.