Inquiry No. NQ-2004-005
14 September 2004
Inquiry No. NQ-2004-005
NOTICE OF COMMENCEMENT OF INQUIRY
Notice was received by the Secretary of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (the Tribunal) on September 10, 2004, from the Director General of the Anti-dumping and Countervailing Directorate at the Canada Border Services Agency, stating that a preliminary determination had been made respecting the dumping and subsidizing of carbon steel and stainless steel fasteners, i.e. screws, nuts and bolts of carbon steel or stainless steel that are used to mechanically join two or more elements, excluding fasteners specifically designed for application in the automotive or aerospace industry, originating in or exported from the People's Republic of China and Chinese Taipei.
Pursuant to section 42 of the Special Import Measures Act (SIMA), the Tribunal has initiated an inquiry to determine whether the dumping and subsidizing of the above-mentioned goods have caused injury or retardation or are threatening to cause injury, and to determine such other matters as the Tribunal is required to determine under that section.
PUBLIC HEARING
A public hearing relating to this inquiry will be held in the Tribunal's Hearing Room, 18th Floor, Standard Life Centre, 333 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, Ontario, commencing the 6th day of December 2004, at 9:30 a.m. Each person or government wishing to participate in the inquiry and at the hearing as a party must file a notice of participation with the Secretary on or before September 28, 2004. Each counsel who intends to represent a party in the inquiry and at the hearing must file a notice of representation, as well as a declaration and confidentiality undertaking, with the Secretary on or before September 28, 2004.
To allow the Tribunal to determine whether simultaneous interpretation will be required for the hearing, each interested party and each counsel filing a notice of participation or representation must advise the Secretary, at the same time that they file the notice, whether they and their witnesses will be using French or English or both languages at the hearing.
In the event of an injury finding, a request for a public interest inquiry conducted pursuant to subsection 45(1) of SIMA may be made by any party to the injury inquiry or by any other group or person affected by the injury finding. Such a request must be filed with the Tribunal within 45 days of the injury finding. A public interest inquiry is completely separate from an injury inquiry. However, the Tribunal invites all persons who anticipate that they will have public interest concerns in the event of an injury finding to simply notify the Tribunal by September 28, 2004.
The Tribunal is not seeking and does not expect submissions on public interest issues during the injury inquiry.
In order to observe and understand production processes, the Tribunal, accompanied by its staff, may conduct plant visits.
Along with the notice of commencement of inquiry, the Secretary has sent a letter to the domestic producers, importers, foreign producers and certain purchasers with a known interest in the inquiry providing details on the procedures, as well as the schedule for the inquiry. The letter specifies, among other things, the date for filing replies to Tribunal questionnaires, the date on which the information on record will be made available by the Tribunal to interested parties and counsel that have filed notices of participation or representation, and the dates for the filing of submissions by interested parties. Copies of all the questionnaires issued can be downloaded from the Tribunal's Web site at http://www.citt-tcce.gc.ca/question/index_e.asp.
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal Rules govern these proceedings.
REQUESTS FOR PRODUCT EXCLUSIONS
Requests to exclude products from the finding must be filed by interested parties no later than October 18, 2004. Parties opposed, or consenting, or not opposed to a request for product exclusion must file a written response no later than November 9, 2004. Shoul