Canada to intensify trade remedy regulations

The prime minister’s office billed the revamped regulations being developed as a brace against trans-shipment and other illicit foreign trade practices.    Canada is implementing regulatory changes anticipated to neutralize the impacts of steel and aluminum trans-shipment and other unfair foreign trade practices, the prime minister’s office announced Tuesday.
   The regulatory changes “will be brought forward and be subject to a 15-day consultation period through the Canada Gazette,” the announcement said.
   “New anti-circumvention investigations” will allow the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to identify and stop companies attempting to dodge duties; for example, by slightly modifying products or assembling them in Canada or a third country, according to the announcement.
   CBSA will have greater flexibility in duty calculations to determine whether prices changed in the exporter’s domestic market used for price comparisons in unfair trade investigations are reliable or distorted, the prime minister’s office said.
   Unions will gain standing to participate in trade remedy cases, including at the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, into whether foreign exports are harming Canadian producers, the announcement said.
   CBSA will also increase information sharing and enforcement action with foreign partners, and the government of Canada will conduct a review to ensure that its enforcement agencies have all essential resources to take action on unfair trade.
   Canada will also “look to meet more often” with the U.S. and Mexico to “identify and discuss solutions” to trade issues harming all three countries, including with regard to trans-shipment, diversion, and global overcapacity, according to the announcement.
   The Canadian government will additionally “participate in” new “federal-provincial-territorial-stakeholder committees,” which will “meet regularly” to monitor steel and aluminum trade to ensure imports don’t hurt Canadian and North American jobs, the prime minister’s office said.
   “Canada is a trading nation, and we will not allow North American industries to be hurt or threatened by unfair trade practices, like the diversion of steel and aluminum,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement. “Our businesses and workers rely on our integrated industries, and we will take strong action to defend and protect our most important trade relationships. Canada will not be used as a backdoor into other North American markets.”
   Canada’s announcement comes just weeks after President Donald Trump announced generally global 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum, after a U.S. investigation found that such imports could impair national security.
   The White House has announced that Canada will be exempt from the tariffs at least until May 1.