Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, members of the committee.
My name is Doug Band, and I am the Director General responsible for the Canada Border Services Agency's, or CBSA, trade and anti-dumping programs. I have with me today Alexander Lawton, the Director of Trade Compliance.
Within CBSA, our area facilitates compliance with Canadian trade laws and international trade agreements, including the proper assessment of duties and taxes owing on imported goods. We also conduct compliance verification audits, and deliver programs on behalf of Finance Canada that support the competitiveness of Canadian business.
Our area also administers the Special Import Measures Act, which helps protect Canadian producers who face unfair foreign competition in the Canadian marketplace from injury caused by the dumping and subsidizing of imported goods.
As the committee is aware and has heard from businesses and other officials who have appeared, the U.S. imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports has increased the importance of protecting Canadian producers against the diversion of some of these goods into our market. With access to the U.S. market restricted by the tariffs, foreign steel exporters are seeking alternative markets, including ours.
The CBSA has certainly seen an increase in our anti-dumping program activity, and we expect this to continue. So far this year, CBSA has initiated 18 investigations of anti-dumping, or a subsidy, compared to an average of 12 in previous years. Sixteen of those 18 are related to steel. We've assessed over $18 million in anti-dumping and countervailing duties so far, and that's compared to a high in 2017-2018 of $33 million over the course of the entire year.
In recognition of the importance of this program to Canada's trade remedy system, the CBSA is hiring additional trade officers with new funding provided in order to conduct investigations and compliance monitoring activities, including those related to steel and aluminum. In addition, new anti-circumvention investigation authorities were introduced to further strengthen our trade enforcement, allowing the CBSA to identify and address companies attempting to avoid anti-dumping duties.
Two other programs that I'm responsible for as the director general and that I would like to highlight are the duties relief program and the duty drawback program, which I know have been subjects of discussion among the committee members. Both are regulated programs administered by the CBSA on behalf of Finance Canada.
While our trade remedy system helps preserve a fair and open trading environment for domestic producers, the DRP and drawback programs support the competitiveness of Canadian companies in the global marketplace. Through these programs, qualified companies can import goods without paying duties on the condition that the imported goods be exported within a specified time frame.
The duty relief program—or DRP, as we call it—allows eligible companies to import goods without paying duties at the time of importing. The duty drawback is somewhat different; it allows companies to claim a refund, or a drawback, after the fact, once those goods that have been imported are ultimately exported.
Both programs are valued and are well used by industry. Last year, in fiscal year 2017-18, the duties relief program had 402 participants, who benefited from approximately $385 million in duty relief. We processed over 3,000 drawback claims from over 1,300 claimants, and collectively under the drawback program they received $135 million in duty drawback.
Since the imposition of Canada's surtax on the U.S. in July of this year, the demand for these programs has increased significantly. In response, we received 73 applications to the duty relief program, of which 36 licences have already been approved. In a typical year, we would get on average between 20 to 25 new licence applications under the duty relief program.
Given the pressures facing Canadian business, we have internally reallocated resources to meet this surge in demand, and as a result we have cut the time it takes to process a DRP licence in half, from our service standard of 90 days to 45 days. While we've received a very small number of drawback claims to date, the few that we have received are being processed in less than a third of the allocated 90-day time frame. We're doing it in approximately 23 days.
While these programs are not a panacea for Canadian importers, they offer some assistance to qualifying companies in what is, as we know, a dynamic and rapidly changing trade environment.
Finally I want to mention that CBSA has worked hard to provide businesses with the information they need to comply with the surtax. We've updated our website, issued customs notices, and used social media in the days before and after the announcement. We received over 85,000 views of that material on our website.
Our border information service hotline responded to over 500 calls on the surtax within the first week of implementation alone. We've also been meeting with industry associations on how to comply, and this has included questions regarding the administration of the DRP and the drawback programs.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
I would be happy to answer any questions the committee may have.