On January 16, 2023, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) issued a notice that it was beginning an expiry review in respect of certain carbon pipe fittings originating in or exported from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (“Vietnam”). Anyone wanting to participate in the expiry review must file a Notice of Participation with the CITT by January 31, 2023!

Both domestic producers and exporters should consider participating in the expiry review, as current anti-dumping duties (“ADDs”) for goods without a normal value are 159%, and countervailing duties (“CVDs”) are 76,360.47 VND per unit!

Subject Goods are defined in the Order as follows:

Pressure pipe fittings and drainage, waste and vent pipe fittings, made of cast copper alloy, wrought (or “wrot”) copper alloy or wrought copper for use in heating, plumbing, air conditioning and refrigeration applications originating in or exported from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, restricted to the products enumerated in Appendix 1.

The enumerated products can be found here.

Background

Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) originally initiated an investigation in respect of the Subject Goods on October 27, 2017, in response to a complaint from Canadian producer Cello Products Inc. about exports from Vietnam.

The CBSA made a preliminary determination that the Subject Goods were being dumped and subsidized on January 25, 2018, and on April 25, 2018, the CBSA made a final determination that Subject Goods were being dumped and subsidized.

On May 25, 2018, the CITT issued a finding that the dumping of the Subject Goods (as defined in the finding) from Vietnam have caused injury or are threatening to cause injury to the Canadian domestic industry. As a result of this finding, the ADDs and CVDs determined by the CBSA came into effect in respect of Subject Goods originating in or exported from Vietnam.

All the exporters of Subject Goods that had initially been cooperating with the CBSA’s investigation ultimately withdrew before the end of the investigation due to incomplete responses. Therefore, amounts of subsidy were determined pursuant to a Ministerial Specification under subsection 30.4(2) of SIMA. This is based on a comparative analysis of the facts available, establishing a single ADD and CVD value for all exports of Subject Goods originating in or exported from Vietnam.

The CITT’s newly announced expiry review is in respect of this 2018 finding, as required every five years by section 76.03 of the SIMA.

Targeted Order

While it is not uncommon for anti-dumping orders to make detailed and specific exclusions (usually at the request of an importer, exporter or manufacturer), this Order is somewhat unusual in that it is restricted only to the list of goods outlined in Appendix 1 to the Order.

Businesses should keep that in mind if and when facing any inquiries from CBSA – and getting legal advice before responding can help as well!

What’s Next?

Although there is currently a single ADD and CVD for all exports originating in or exported from Vietnam, individual exporters who cooperate throughout this expiry review and provide complete submissions have the potential to be determined not to be dumping and not subject to ADDs or CVDs, or, if determined to be dumping, may be assigned specific normal values in respect of their products (i.e., prices at or above which subject goods may be sold without incurring ADDs).

From the other side of the fence, if no domestic producer files a notice of participation by January 31, 2023, the CITT has indicated that it will terminate the expiry review and let its previous finding lapse – resulting in the termination of the ADD/CVDs on these Subject Goods.

This (new) preliminary step puts a significant time pressure on domestic producers who may have been used to waiting for an RFI from CBSA to nudge them into action!

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