Appleton Coated

• Appleton, along with other representatives of US pulp and paper industry, has lodged a subsidies and dumping complaint with the International Trade Commission against Chinese and Indonesian pulp and paper producers.
• In 2009, Appleton Coated received $18 million in subsidies from the US government for powering their plants on ‘black liquor’, a standard practice in the industry before subsidies were introduced.
• While Europe’s share of world paper and board production was stable between 1980 and 2005, North America’s share declined substantially to 23 per cent from 47 per cent, while Asia’s share has increased to 35 per cent from 23 per cent. This illustrates a clear inability of US producers to compete, rather than unfair trade distortion on the part of Asian producers.
• Despite Appleton Coated’s expressed desire to protect US jobs and its industry from unfair competition, the tariffs it is seeking to impose on Chinese and Indonesian producers would kill an entirely different industry – the printing industry.

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