For over fifty years, I have said "Energy is Politics." It looks like we now need to say, "Market Pulp is Politics." The tariff machinations promulgated by President Trump, by and large, seem to be beneficial to the United States. However, if your primary input is market pulp from Brazil, you currently have only a brief(?) reprieve.

North America still out produces Brazil in market pulp, but the only thing saving Brazilian market pulp from the 50% tariff increase is it being in an exempted category, at least for now. This means that for the moment, market pulp tariffs out of Brazil will stay at 10%.

There is a lesson to be learned here, though. Major trading commodities such as oil and pulp are always subject to the whims of governments and their internecine spats, for these materials trade across international borders.

I have watched for decades as US pulp mill assets have been shut down. The short-term reasons have seemingly been profitability. No one believes more in profitability than me (spinnin' the invoice printer). Yet there is something here beyond profitability--this is preserving the assets. I am not talking about physical assets, I am talking about operating and environmental permits, wood basket security and other such matters. For decades we have seen these forfeited with what appears to be little thought. Yet a simple change in Washington could make these long-gone assets fixtures for which boards of directors long to have back.

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Now comes forth Artuso Pastry Foods et al with a class action suit against the containerboard and packaging board companies claiming price fixing amongst all the players in these categories. Haven't seen one of these class action suits in a long time. I have read the complaint, and I am still thinking about it. If nothing else, it will leave CEOs with another overhead category until it is settled.

Jim Thompson is CEO of Paperitalo Publications.