MSCI Canadian Council Supports Amendments To The Special Import Measures Act

Last week, William T. Chisholm, chair of the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) Canadian Council and president and CEO of Samuel, Son & Co., Limited, submitted comments to the Canadian Department of Finance on behalf of MSCI regarding the government of Canada’s consultation on trade remedy modernization through potential amendments to the Special Import Measures Act (SIMA). 

The letter, which called for “immediate action” to address increasing volumes of unfairly traded goods, said MSCI is “encouraged” that the Canadian government is “taking steps to improve Canada’s ability to effectively remedy dumped and subsidized imports.” The letter argued, “A healthy Canadian manufacturing base is a very important source of demand for metal products” and said, “With increasing pressures coming from dumped and subsidized products entering the North American market, Canadian manufacturers are counting on Canada’s trade remedy system to maintain a level-playing field.” 

The letter noted MSCI supports providing the Canada Border Services Agency with additional legislative tools “to address situations where the price and cost data in an export market are distorted and, in effect, understate the degree to which products are being dumped in the Canadian market.” It also argued the Canadian government must “adopt new proceedings to address circumvention and to seek clarification of what goods are properly subject to antidumping/countervailing duties” and, regarding the standards of evidence, must clarify “the type and amount of evidence that the domestic industry is required to put forward to initiate trade cases.” 

The letter concluded that “these [three] broad objectives can be effectively addressed by enacting all of the proposed amendments to SIMA legislation in accordance with the submission made by the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA) to this consultation process.”