On the legal fees, I don't have the number, Peter. I'll get that to you, whatever it is to date.
Keep in mind, on this particular dispute, back in 2007 we received some advice from the industry in regard to this reallocation formula, which everybody agreed to; everybody agreed this tax would be paid. The industry and others suggested the tax didn't have to be collected until July 1, 2007. We had officials saying they thought it was January 1. It was a grey area. Anyway, we went with the considered opinion, which was to start collecting those taxes in July. The Americans challenged that. They won the ruling. The ruling said, sorry, you should have started collecting in January. So it was really six months of back taxes that were owed--$68 million or $70 million.
We didn't like the ruling. We appealed it. We even offered a lesser amount, as you know. We said that if there was harm to the U.S. industry, they quoted a particular figure, and that's what we were going to offer to cure the breach. We said to the panel, tell us if you accept the appeal. As you know, just recently the panel came back. They could not have been clearer, that they did not accept that appeal and they didn't accept our down payment. They said the full amount had to be paid, those back taxes, as if it were from January 1. They said to pay up. They even told us how it would be paid--this was the panel, not the Americans. They said it would be done on those who were first shipping across the border until they got the $68 million. They have collected about $12 million, because as you know, while we were in the process of appeal, the Americans went ahead and started collecting. It's somewhere in the neighbourhood of $12 million. We're just in the process of negotiating. Does that come back to us in the form of a cheque, a rebate? Do we deduct it from the $68 million? We're in that process of negotiation right now.
Chairman, I thank you for allowing me to go a bit over time. I do have to leave. As we indicated before, I can be here until noon.
I look forward to coming back to this committee at the will of the committee, and I do sincerely thank the committee. I know there are times, quite rightly, when things get partisan, but there is good advice and direction that comes from members. We listen to it all and we even try to implement a significant part of it, and we thank committee members for the good work.