March 11, 2019

Anti-dumping and countervailing duties: why, and how does it work?

Canada, like other countries that are members of the World Trade Organization, may apply anti-dumping and/or countervailing duties to certain imported goods, under very specific circumstances.

The process is set in motion, under the Special Import Measures Act (SIMA), when a Canadian producer submits a complaint to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) asserting that certain goods are dumped or subsidized for sale in Canada and that the dumping or the subsidies are causing injury to the producer's industry.

CBSA will do a preliminary investigation to confirm whether there is in fact dumping, and establish the amount by which the goods are dumped, and/or if there are in fact subsidies granted by an foreign government on the goods, and the amount of any such subsidy.

Meanwhile, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) will conduct its own preliminary investigation to see whether the Canadian industry is actually hurt, or threatened by the dumping and/or subsidizing.

Provisional anti-dumping and countervailing duties will be imposed if both the CBSA and the CITT reach positive preliminary determinations.

In such a case the CBSA and the Tribunal will each conduct a final investigation. Final anti-dumping and countervailing duties will only be collected if both the CBSA and the CITT reach positive determinations.

The CBSA has a very informative section on its website. Within the section is a list of goods which are hit by the special duties.