On November 28, 2022, the Canadian international Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) issued a notice that it will be conducting an expiry review of its finding regarding stainless steel sinks originating or exported from China. Anyone wanting to participate in the expiry review must file a Notice of Participation with the CITT by December 13, 2022!

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 103.1%, and countervailing duties (“CVDs”) are 264.94 Renmibi per unit!

Subject Goods are defined as follows (subject to exclusions):

“Stainless steel sinks with a single drawn bowl having a volume between 1,600 and 5,000 cubic inches (26,219.30 and 81,935.32 cubic centimetres) or with multiple drawn bowls having a combined volume between 2,200 and 6,800 cubic inches (36,051.54 and 111,432.04 cubic centimetres), excluding sinks fabricated by hand, originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China.”

Background

Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) originally initiated an investigation in respect of the Subject Goods on October 27, 2011, in response to a complaint from Canadian producers Novanni Stainless Inc. and Franke Kindred Canada Limited about imports from China.

The CBSA made a preliminary determination that the Subject goods were being dumped and subsidized on January 25, 2012, and on April 24, 2012 the CBSA made its final determination as to dumping and subsidy. Because no exporters cooperated with CBSA in its investigation, no exporters were issued normal values or specific amounts of subsidy at that time.

On May 24, 2012, CITT issued a finding that the dumping and subsidizing of the Subject Goods (as defined in the finding) from China had caused injury to Canadian domestic industry. As a result of this finding, the ADDs/CVDs determined by the CBSA in its final determination came into effect (replacing earlier provisional duties) in respect of Subject Goods originating in or exported from China.

CBSA Re-Investigations

When goods are sold for export to Canada at or above the normal value assigned by CBSA, no ADDs apply. However, unless exporters cooperate in an investigation, or any subsequent re-investigation, and CBSA assigns them normal values and/or specific amounts of subsidy, they will be subject to the default ADDs and CVDs (respectively).

CBSA may initiate re-investigations of the normal values within the industry from time to time, and usually do so when they are of the view that there have been significant changes (i.e., in costs, pricing, etc.) which warrant further CBSA review.

In the case of stainless steel sinks, while no exporters co-operated with CBSA in its initial investigation, during its first re-investigation, which concluded on April 1, 2014, CBSA found three (3) cooperating exporters, and assigned them normal values and specific amounts of subsidy for their products. A further re-investigation took place in 2016, with four (4) Chinese exporters co-operating with CBSA and receiving normal values and specific amounts of subsidy.

Prior Expiry Review

Separate and apart form the CBSA’s re-investigations, the CITT is mandated to conduct expiry reviews every 5 years by section 76.03 of the Special Import Measures Act. The CITT initiated its first expiry review in 2017, and on February 8, 2018, continued its finding (and the ADDs/CVDs) in respect of Subject Goods.

The CITT is now commencing its second expiry review.

What’s Next?

If no domestic producer files a notice of participation by December 13, 2022, the CITT has indicated it will likely terminate the expiry review and let its previous finding lapse – resulting in the termination of the ADD/CVDs.

This (new) preliminary step puts a new 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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