MIAMISBURG, Ohio (PRNewswire-USNewswire) — NewPage is pleased that President Obama signed the legislation passed by the U.S. House and Senate that will allow the Department of Commerce to continue to apply the countervailing duty law to non-market economy countries like China. This legislation will preserve intact the countervailing duty order in place covering coated paper, as well as other countervailing duty orders covering other products from China.
"We applaud the remarkable effort of Congress in passing this important legislation, and would like to especially thank Republican Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Susan Collins (R-ME) for their leadership roles," stated George Martin, president and chief executive officer for NewPage.
"Keeping these duties in place helps to level the playing field and allow our world-class operations and workforce to continue to service our customers with high quality, competitive products," added Martin.
In 2009, Appleton Coated LLC, NewPage Corporation, Sappi Fine Paper North America and the United Steelworkers Union filed trade cases seeking to end dumping and subsidy practices, involving certain coated paper produced in China and Indonesia. In 2010, these efforts resulted in antidumping and countervailing duties being imposed on imports from both of these countries. Until the duties were put in place, imports from these countries were having a devastating effect on production and employment in the United States.
NewPage is the leading producer of printing and specialty papers in North America with $3.5 billion in net sales for the year ended December 31, 2011. NewPage is headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, and owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 3.5 million tons of paper. The company's product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated, specialty, supercalendered and uncoated papers. These papers are used in commercial printing to create corporate collateral, magazines, catalogs, books, coupons, inserts and direct mail as well as in specialty paper applications including beverage bottle labels, food and medical packaging, pressure-sensitive labels and release liners. To learn more, visit www.NewPageCorp.com.