Tax & Trade Blog

On February 24, 2022 the Canada Border Services Agency (the "CBSA") issued a Notice of Initiation of Investigation under the Special Import Measures Act ("SIMA") of alleged dumping and subsidizing of Mattresses originating in or exported from China. This investigation was prompted by a complaint filed by Restwell Mattress Co. Ltd. And the United Steelworkers of Canada.

In our previous blog, we discussed CBSA’s Notice of Final Determination which concluded that imports of oil country tribular goodsfrom Mexico had been dumped (“OCTG3”).

Following CBSA’s determination, the inquiry moved to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (the “CITT”) to determine whether Canada’s domestic industry had been injured by the dumping. On January 26, 2022 the CITT – much to the relief of importers – found that OCTG originating in or exported from the Mexico, has not caused and is not threatening to cause injury to the domestic industry!

The Customs Act (the “Act”) requires all persons arriving in Canada to report their imported goods brought into Canada. Accordingly, travellers arriving in Canada can expect to be investigated by the Canadian Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) who has been mandated to detect and apprehend violators of the Act. CBSA officers are vested with broad search and seizure powers.

Those in contravention of the Act may face enforcement actions including seizures, ascertained forfeitures, penalties and even potentially criminal smuggling charges!

On the civil side of things, CBSA’s enforcement actions can usually be challenged by acting timely and taking prudent steps such as, by engaging an experienced professional!

Canada’s beef industry has been no stranger to difficulty in the past few years. COVID-19 has required many slaughterhouses and meat processing plants to shut down because of outbreaks, while knock on-effects to the restaurant industry, supply chains and international trade further disrupted long-standing patterns of supply, delivery and demand.

A recent, atypical case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (commonly known as ‘Mad Cow Disease’) detected on an Alberta farm has compounded these issues and exposed the sensitivity of Canada’s international export industry in this space.

International Trade continues to be a hotbed of action for governments and businesses around the world. We previously wrote in July 2021 about complaints made to the Canada Border Services Agency (the “CBSA”) that Mexico and Austria have been “dumping” certain Oil Country Tubular Goods (“OCTG”) into the Canadian marketplace.