Steel Products Prices North America

Canada Investigates Dumping and Subsidizing on Steel Plate from India & Russia

June 11, 2015

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has initiated investigations into alleged dumping and subsidizing of certain hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate originating in or exported from the Republic of India (India) and the Russian Federation (Russia).

The investigation follows a complaint filed on April 20, 2015 by Essar Steel Algoma claiming that dumping and subsidizing of the products is causing injury to domestic producers.

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (Tribunal) will conduct a preliminary inquiry on whether the imports are harming Canadian producers and will issue a decision by August 10, 2015. Meanwhile, the CBSA will investigate whether the imports are being dumped and/or subsidized and will issue their decision by September 8, 2015.

If the CBSA determines in the preliminary investigation that there is evidence of dumping and/or subsidization a final decision will be made with 90 days.

According to CBSA, “Although duties to counteract the dumping and subsidizing are normally only applied to goods released on or after the date of the CBSA’s preliminary determination(s), if the Tribunal determines that an unusually large increase in harmful imports has occurred prior to the CBSA’s decision and that the retroactive application of anti-dumping or countervailing duty is therefore justified, duty could be levied on the goods brought into Canada as of today.”

Canada, like the U.S., defines dumping as occurring when goods are sold to importers in Canada at less than market price in the exporter’s domestic market or at unprofitable prices. Subsidizing is when goods imported into Canada benefit from foreign government financial assistance.