LexSage

Canadian International Trade Tribunal
Issues Practice Notice On Filing
Questionnaire Replies

August 23, 2016

On June 10, 2016, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) issued a Practice Notice entitled “Filing of Questionnaire Replies and Revisions and Issuance of Revised Investigation Report”.  In antidumping and countervailing duty injury inquiries, the CITT issues questionnaires to producers, importers, foreign producers and purchasers.  The CITT compiles the information and data provided by respondents in an Investigation Report.  Parties usually have 22 days to complete the Questionnaires and then there is a period during which the ATSSC staff seek clarifications and corrections. The distribution of the Tribunal’s Record usually occurs on Day 50 for the injury inquiry.  The Investigation Report is finalized just before the Tribunal’s Record is distributed.

The CITT members have noticed that parties are missing the deadline for filing the Questionnaire responses.  Hence, the CITT has issued the Practice Notice.

The Tribunal sets out its requests, which are not Tribunal Rules as they are not in the regulations.

Request 1: Questionnaire respondents shall ensure that their replies to questionnaires are complete and accurate before filing them with the Tribunal. Counsel should review questionnaire replies submitted on behalf of their clients before filing.

Request 2: Responses to questionnaires shall be filed by the due date indicated on the questionnaire.

Request 3: Where revisions to questionnaire replies are necessitated by follow-ups from staff of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Secretariat (the Secretariat), questionnaire respondents shall provide the revisions by the deadlines provided by the staff of the Secretariat.

Request 4: The Tribunal informs parties of the late filing procedures and asks parties to follow the procedures.

The Tribunal also provides information about its procedures:

Information 1: Any revision to a questionnaire response filed within 10 calendar days of the distribution of Tribunal exhibits (the date of which will have been indicated in the notice commencing the proceedings) will not be included in the Investigation Report that is distributed with the exhibits.

Information 2: Revisions not in response to follow-ups from staff of the Secretariat received after this cut-off date will not be accepted and not put onto the record except in exceptional circumstances and with leave of the Tribunal.

Information 3: Rather than issuing ongoing revisions to the Investigation Report, in whole or in part, as revised information trickles in throughout the course of the proceedings, only a single Revised Investigation Report will be issued. This version will consolidate all revisions accepted up until then and will be issued shortly after receipt of the reply submissions of the parties supporting the proceedings. This will occur a week or so before the date the hearing is scheduled to commence.

Information 4: Counsel and parties will have an opportunity to address any matters arising from the Revised Investigation Report during the matters arising phase of the Tribunal’s proceedings and at the hearing.  This will occur within the week before the hearing is scheduled to commence.

Most parties to the proceeding who are not represented by counsel may not be aware of the new Practice Notice, which is posted on the CITT’s web-site.

For more information, please contact Cyndee Todgham Cherniak at 416-307-4168 or at cyndee@lexsage.com.

This article was originally published on www.Canada-USBlog.com. Republished with permission.