On Thursday 16th May 2019, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal published a notice of the commencement of an inquiry regarding exclusion requests concerning certain heavy steel plate and stainless steel wire products subject to the final safeguard measures that were imposed on Monday 13th May.

This notice is further to an Order in Council made Thursday 9th May on the recommendation of the Minister of Finance (Order Referring to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, for Inquiry into and Reporting on, the Matter of the Exclusion of Certain Steel Goods from the Order Imposing a Surtax on the Importation of Certain Steel Goods (Exclusions Inquiry Order), PC number 2019-0476) which directs the Tribunal to conduct the exclusion inquiry and sets out the terms of its mandate.

Importers of heavy steel plate products or stainless steel wire products should consider participating in this inquiry. If the Tribunal recommends that a specific product should be excluded from the final safeguard measure, and the Minister of Finance grants the exclusion, then the safeguard duties will not be applied to imports of that product.

The time limits in this inquiry are very short, requiring interested parties to file their notices of participation by Monday 27th May and to submit their exclusion requests by noon on Friday 7th June. The schedule of the proceedings is as follows:

• 16 May – Notice of commencement of inquiry
• 27 May – Last date to file notices of participation, declarations and undertakings
• 7 June by 12:00 noon – Deadline for submission of the exclusion requests
• 19 June by 12:00 noon – Deadline for responses to the exclusion requests (i.e., from the domestic producers)
• 15 July – The Tribunal will issue its decision and issue a report to the Minister of Finance

The Tribunal has posted the specific form that parties requesting a product exclusion must complete and submit, and it is available online for download here: http://www.citt-tcce.gc.ca/en/forms.

Tereposky & DeRose regularly provides advice on Canadian trade matters, including safeguard actions, and has a proven track record of successfully obtaining product exclusion requests on behalf of importers. Should you have any questions regarding this matter, we are at your disposal.