Glens Falls

Cheap paper from China is flooding the market and driving down sales for American companies such as Finch Paper LLC, which employs 600 workers in Glens Falls.

That's the International Trade Commission finding announced Friday by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who visited the paper company last month and pressed the ITC to protect Finch from Chinese trade practices.

In its preliminary ruling on a trade case filed by Finch, the commission said "that there was reason to conclude that imports are injuring or threatening injury to domestic paper producers," according to the announcement from Schumer's office.

"This is an excellent step at leveling the playing field for Finch Paper once and for all," he said in a statement.

The case next goes to the Commerce Department, which will issue its own preliminary determination by the end of June.

Finch says that imported, uncoated paper from Indonesia, Australia, Portugal, Brazil and Australia as well as China is unfairly cheap and leads to losses in the millions, making competition difficult.

While foreign imports increased over the past few years — 44 percent from 2011-13 and 40 percent from 2013-14 — American shipments of uncoated paper have declined from around 8 percent from 2011-13 and 9 percent from 2013-14, Schumer said.