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SKOWHEGAN

Skowhegan Chamber joins paper-trade rally

By Doug Harlow dharlow@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

SKOWHEGAN -- The executive director of the Skowhegan Area Chamber of Commerce is scheduled to be among the speakers Friday at an event in Rumford on the impact of imported Asian paper on American jobs.

Cory King is to join Congressman Michael Michaud, state Senate President Libby Mitchell and representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in calling for trade adjustments with China and Indonesia.

A rally is set for 11 a.m. at the NewPage Corp. administrative building on Hartford Street in Rumford.

"They produce the same paper that Sappi produces," King said Wednesday of Asian manufacturers. "What they're trying to do is put a tariff on that paper."

Three paper mills nationally, including Sappi Fine Paper LLC in Skowhegan, produce coated paper similar to paper coming from Asia.

Asian paper manufacturers are unfairly shipping paper to the United States with the help of government subsidies, Daniel Lawson, field coordinator with the Alliance for American Manufacturing, told Skowhegan selectmen last month.

The unfair practices result in the "dumping" of paper on the U.S. market at prices that are cheaper than what it can be produced for in the country.

Lawson is coordinating Friday's rally and has invited King, along with the town managers of Rumford and Mexico, to join him at the podium.

Sappi, NewPage and Appleton Coated LLC of Wisconsin, along with the United Steelworkers union, in September filed unfair-trade cases with the Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, hoping to level the business market.

"One of the things they have to do is prove harm -- what would be the impact to the area if you lost Sappi," King said. "The impact on Skowhegan, if we lost Sappi ... is it would absolutely devastate every part of our economy. It would devastate the school system, it would ruin our tax base, we would have to cut programs, services."

Michaud submitted testimony Monday to the House Ways and Means Committee about China's alleged manipulation of its national currency and how it affects Maine workers and American businesses. Currency manipulation lowers its value and makes the cost of exports more attractive to foreign buyers.

"If China continues to be able to export its coated paper at a subsidized price, I am very concerned that the two Sappi Fine Paper mills in Somerset and Westbrook, Maine will also close," Michaud said in an April 5 release. "This would result in nearly 1,200 workers losing their jobs and the economic devastation of these paper mill communities."

The Obama administration this past weekend said that it would delay a decision on whether to declare China a currency manipulator, but it vowed to press Chinese leaders on the issue during a series of meetings through June, according to Michaud.

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534

dharlow@centralmaine.com