Canada announces dumping investigation against China
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has announced that it is initiating investigations into the alleged injurious dumping and subsidizing of certain photovoltaic modules and laminates originating in or exported from the People's Republic of China.
The investigations follow a complaint filed by Eclipsall Energy Corporation (Toronto, Ontario); Heliene Inc. (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario); Silfab Ontario Inc. (Mississauga, Ontario); and Solgate Inc. (Woodbridge, Ontario) (the complainants). The complainants allege that the dumping and subsidizing of these goods are harming Canadian production by causing the following: increasing volume of dumped and subsidized goods, lost sales and lost market shares, price undercutting and price erosion, declining financial results, reduced production and under-utilized capacity, reduction in employment, and recent insolvencies and closures.
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (Tribunal) will begin a preliminary inquiry to determine whether the imports are harming Canadian producers and will issue a decision by February 3, 2015. While the Tribunal is examining the question of injury, the CBSA will investigate whether the imports are being dumped and/or subsidized, and will make a preliminary decision by March 5, 2015.
Should the CBSA make a preliminary determination of dumping and/or subsidizing, the investigations will be continued for the purpose of making a final decision within 90 days after the date of the preliminary determination. If the CBSA's investigations reveal that imports of the subject goods have not been dumped or subsidized, that the margin of dumping or amount of subsidy is insignificant or that the actual and potential volume of dumped or subsidized goods is negligible, the investigations will be terminated.
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.
A copy of the Statement of Reasons, which provides more details about these investigations, will be available on the CBSA's website at www.cbsa.gc.ca/sima-lmsi within 15 days.
