To keep away from profit-margin controls, companies were considering dropping products where costs, and thus prices, had increased.

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Tariffs in China on US-made goods are set to fall from an average of 25% to 9% by 2005, with duties on farm products dropping to 14% from 31%.

BBC: US normalises trade with China

But while demand for other paper products was dropping, U.S. tissue consumption was on the way up, increasing an estimated 7.2% between 2001 and 2011, according to Vertical.

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