The United Print Media Group Inc. (UPMG) has appealed to the Department of Trade and Industry to reconsider the imposition of a safeguard duty on imported newsprint as this would not only seriously injure the print media industry, but also jack up prices of textbooks, notebooks and other educational materials.
In an open letter published in major dailies Wednesday, UPMG called on Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo to set aside the recommendation of the Tariff Commission to slap additional duties and “allow the print media industry to develop without necessary financial or economic constraints” as the industry already “faces formidable challenges amid a rapidly changing media landscape.”
The Tariff Commission issued on Feb. 23 a report recommending the imposition of a definitive safeguard measure of P2,470 a metric ton (MT) on imported newsprint within a three-year period after the agency found that the “domestic newsprint industry suffered serious injury from 2012 to September 2014” given the “abrupt and notably sharp increase in the volume of newsprint imported into the Philippines particularly in 2012.”
UPMG warned that the additional safeguard duty would result to an increase of 5-8 percent in the operational costs of publication of national and provincial newspapers, tabloids and magazines.
“Newsprint represents 60 percent of the costs of publication. Unlike other goods and products where upward adjustments in the price of their raw materials can be passed on to consumers by way of price increases, print media do not enjoy that flexibility because it will reduce or decrease subscriptions to publications. It is for this reason that the broadsheets have not increased their cover price for the past five years,” UPMG explained.
“At present, subscription to newspapers, tabloids and magazines have already been adversely affected by the availability of information or content in the Internet free of charge. Increasing the cover price of these publications will further erode that customer base,” the group added.