Evidence of meeting #29 for International Trade in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was injury.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
I am afraid I am unable to give you even an approximation.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
I would now like to come back to the question of the involvement of...
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
Allow me to clarify that when a business or a sector opts to take a matter to the Tribunal, it is free to determine how it wants to be represented. Legal representation involved costs; however, although many companies choose to do so, it is not necessary for a party to be represented by counsel during proceedings. Obviously, hiring a legal counsel can be costly, but we do not know exactly how much it costs.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Very well.
I would like to return to the question of the tribunal membership. Representation on the tribunal is something that the union movement has long been demanding. The NDP member for Winnipeg-Centre, Pat Martin, even tabled a bill aiming to guarantee that one seat on the tribunal be reserved for a union representative to ensure that job losses and the effect on the community be taken into consideration. This would allow workers to request inquiries through the union.
Are workers currently able to ask a tribunal to open an inquiry?
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
We deal with different sorts of cases. In cases relating to safeguard measures or dumping, the complaint must be filed by the industry that is facing injury.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
That means that, under the current system, in a case where the industry is still making a profit, communities and workers do not have a voice even if dumping practices are causing significant job losses.There is no way for them to address this problem, which has an impact on Canadian industries, and to request an inquiry.
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
They can go to the Tribunal as industry representatives, if they have the support of their producers. Obviously, if workers want to file a complaint, they have to do so as representatives of the sector's producers.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
If the producers are divided on a matter, how does the Tribunal determine...
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
The tribunal has to ensure that the complaint is supported by the majority of the sector, although that does not necessarily mean 50% or more. It simply means that the complainant must be representing a solid share of the industry' stakeholders.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
I've let you go a little longer here, so I'll have to cut you off.
Mr. Wilfert.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Gentlemen, I understand you have a $10 million budget and 95 employees. You're a quasi-judicial body that also plays an advisory role. I understand that quasi-judicial role.
Clearly there seem to be repeat offenders like China, the United States, Korea, and others due to certain policies, and the issues are referred to you by producers. What kind of advice do you typically give to government, and essentially what kinds of responses do you get? I realize the government isn't necessarily bound by that advice, but what examples can you give us of where you play that advisory role?
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
First of all, our advisory role is circumscribed. We only give advice where asked, and we draw our authority from the mandate that's given. We can't give advice on things we're not asked for. We essentially try to answer the questions that the government puts to us.
As a good example, on a number of occasions in the last two or three years, the Minister of Finance asked us how we could reduce input tariffs in the textile area. We studied the issues and we tried to see, on balance, where the costs and benefits would be for the textile producers, the government producers, and we gave advice to the government on how the tariffs should be changed in those areas.
Liberal
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
We've had three major requests from the Minister of Finance, plus a standing request. On the standing request, which is usually by individual firms for an individual type of product or fibre or yarn or textile, I would say the vast majority of those have been implemented.
In the larger inquiries, we've had three, and they cover the whole ten or eleven chapters of the tariff dealing with textiles. The first two have been implemented fully. On the third one, which was a small subset of the second one, the Minister of Finance has yet to respond.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Where you see a number of disputes coming to you from what I would suggest are repeat offenders, you don't make any comment on those; you simply respond to the cases. You don't say to government, there seems to be a pattern, there's an issue here. Is that the case whether it's steel or whether its garlic?
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
“Repeat offenders” is, I guess, your characterization.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
I'd say that if you do it more than twice, you must be a repeat offender. How would you characterize it?
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
I wouldn't, sir.
Liberal
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
No, we don't have an opinion on that.
Liberal
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
We don't give advice at large. If we're asked a question, we give advice. The question really is what frames the scope of our mandate.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
What would your advice be, then, on those who have continued to come forward?
Chair, Office of the Chairman, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
You have to realize that dumping and subsidy cases are private actions. Individual companies or industries come before us with a complaint. We deal with the complaint on the basis of the facts that are placed before us. We can't do more than that.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
I know you're mandated by government. You're probably going to say no, but do you have any suggestions in terms of the mandate that you have? Do you have the appropriate tools, given the complexity of some of the cases that are increasingly coming forward? Do any of those tools maybe need to be expanded?