To Our Valued Customer Partners:
Southern Lithoplate “SLP” is actively engaged in the Section 232 Aluminum tariff tax issue. Given a threat to national security announced by President Trump’s administration a 10% tariff tax on all imported aluminum was to take effect March 23rd. Despite of several rounds of international trade negotiations June 1 2018 the 10% tariff on imported aluminum went into full effect.
Southern Lithoplate formally filed for all the necessary exemption requests with the U.S. Commerce Department. We have confirmed there is no domestic supplier of base litho aluminum for our Grand Rapids MI and/or Wake Forest NC plants. Additionally in a joint initiative SLP local Congressmen State Senators and outside resources are all collaborating with APTech inside legal counsel and SLP’s Executive Leadership. As a Board Member of APTech SLP along with PIA and these other industry representatives participated in direct meetings with the Commerce Department and the ITC in Washington DC. to review the significant impact paper and aluminum tariffs will have on our print marketplace.
While our meetings requests and formal exemption requests have been met with openness this 10% tariff or tax on imported goods remains in full effect. To date we have found no relief from the 232 aluminum tariff. While we fully grasp the tough landscape in today’s print marketplace unfortunately we cannot solely absorb the cost of the tariff tax. Hence effective August 1 2018 tariff costs imposed by the U.S. government will impact your offset lithoplate purchases with all orders placed and shipped. This tariff tax will show as a separate line item on all your invoices at a rate of $0.03 ft2 to ensure complete transparency. Please note this is not a price increase from SLP. It is a pass-through of the tariff tax. If the U.S. government removes this aluminum tariff or SLP is granted an exemption from the tariff this surcharge will be discontinued accordingly.
As your only American-owned and privately held lithoplate manufacturer in North America we sincerely appreciate your loyalty. SLP is fully committed and dedicated to you and to print. You can be certain SLP continues to be fully engaged in active dialogue with the Commerce Department and the ITC requesting remedy from these tariffs.
There is an article published at http://whattheythink.com/ on July 26 regarding the industry-wide impact of the 232 tariff. Please join SLP and APTech http://www.printtechnologies.org in our call to Action on Aluminum Tariffs. We urge you to contact your local and state representatives at: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials.
Sincerely
Southern Lithoplate Inc.
