PRESS POINTS

Tariffs on Canadian newsprint are no more

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A tariff on newsprint — the uncoated groundwood paper you’re reading these words on — is no more in what appears to be a victory for newspapers across the country.

The U.S. International Trade Commission rejected tariffs against newsprint imported from Canada, according to The New York Times, dealing a blow to the Trump administration. The commission determined the paper coming across the northern border did not hurt American paper mills in any significant way. Instead, such tariffs could hurt newspapers, where newsprint accounts for a vast majority of its regular costs.

Trump made the move after a mill in Washington state, North Pacific Paper Co., claimed the imports hurt business there. Yet, no other mills in the United States joined North Pacific in the outcry — instead, fighting against the import tax that could have raised newsprint costs as much as 20 percent for American newspapers.

While the short life of the tariff hurt papers across the board, it really threatened community newspapers, where profit margins are much thinner.

Yet newspapers aren’t out of Trump’s economic crosshairs quite yet. A tariff on aluminum — which is a needed component to create plates for printing presses — remains in effect.

“These tariffs were extremely harmful to our regional newspapers — the lifeblood of our local communities — and I worked hard to remove them,” U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer told The Times in a statement. “The International Trade Commission made the exactly right decision today to completely eliminate them.”

 

Fort Indy Houses hit with Legionnaires’ disease

Fort Independence Houses on Bailey Avenue is the latest Bronx facility to report cases of Legionnaires’ disease.

City health department officials say two people in the New York City Housing Authority facility were affected by the bacterial infestation, which typically finds its way in through building water systems, according to published reports.

Details about those affected were sketchy over the Labor Day holiday weekend, but those same reports indicated the two sick people were those who are typically more at risk — those who are older, or who have compromised immune systems.

U.S. International Trade Commission, tariffs, Donald Trump, Michael Hinman, Fort Independence Houses, NYCHA, New York City Housing Authority,

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