Tax & Trade Blog

As we discussed in our prior blog, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) has been conducting a re-investigation in respect of oil country tubular goods (“OCTG”) and certain seamless casing originating in or exported from China.

On March 17, 2023, CBSA released a notice confirming that the re-investigation concluded, updating normal values and export prices. That means normal values previously in place expired on March 17!

On March 13, 2023, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) issued a notice that it was beginning an expiry review in respect of certain steel piling pipes originating in or exported from the People's Republic of China (China). Anyone wanting to participate in the expiry review must file a Notice of Participation with the CITT by March 28, 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 96.4%, and countervailing duties (“CVD”) are 641.35 Chinese Renminbi (RMB) per metric tonne!

On Friday, March 10, 2023, the Canadian government announced it is banning the import of certain aluminium and steel products from Russia. This comes as a sanction against Russia for its actions in Ukraine, and is coordinated with the US’s 200% tariff on aluminum products that came into effect the same day.

On February 21, 2023, the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) concluded its normal value review of refined sugar exported from the US by United Food Group Inc. (“United”).

Unlike re-investigations, where the CBSA reviews and redetermines normal values for all exporters in the industry, in a normal value review the CBSA only reviews the normal values of the named party – in this case United.

This particular normal value review was triggered by an importer appeal. However, while United responded to the CBSA’s RFI, the producer of the goods did not, and accordingly the CBSA concluded the review.

The right to make a customs or Special Import Measures Act (“SIMA”) appeal is very different than the right to make similar income tax or GST appeals. Unlike income tax or GST, appeals for customs and SIMA cases can ONLY be made once full payment of ALL amounts assessed has been made to the government!

This unfair situation is presenting problems for Canadian commercial importers who want to fight their Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA”) customs and SIMA assessments but lack the financial ability to do so.   The issue is especially severe in the case of SIMA assessments, where the amounts being levied by CBSA can sometimes exceed two or three times the total value of the imported goods themselves – and add up to 10 or 20 times the profit margin that the importer expected to earn from these import transactions.