February 4, 2020
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced that it needed more time for making preliminary determinations with respect to the investigation into the alleged injurious dumping and subsidizing of certain corrosion-resistant steel sheet originating in or exported from Turkey, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates.
The Special Import Measures Act (SIMA) provides that, under normal circumstances, the preliminary stage of the investigations shall be completed within 90 days of the date of initiation.
However, due to the complexity and novelty of the issues presented by the investigations, the period has been extended to 135 days, pursuant to subsection 39(1) of SIMA. Consequently, preliminary determinations will be made on or before March 20, 2020.
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal issued a preliminary decision in January, saying it found a reasonable indication that the dumping and subsidizing of the steel sheet from the three countries have caused injury or are threatening to cause injury to Canadian industry.
The CBSA's current investigation will determine the margins of dumping and/or subsidizing applicable to the goods in question. Provisional anti-dumping and countervailing duties could then be applicable to imports of the goods under investigation. In such a case the preliminary decisions of the Tribunal and the CBSA will have to be confirmed by final decisions.