Finance committee  —or subsidization. In a parallel process, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal looks at, if there is dumping, whether or not that dumping is injurious to Canadian producers. The CITT really looks at the injury portion of the process and does not determine whether there is dumping occurring in the Canadian market.

Finance committee  As I said, with respect to the countermeasures, the number we were provided with up to April 30 was $1.3 billion.

Finance committee  Against the United States, from when were imposed on July 1. These numbers can change because of CBSA accounting and the fact that companies can modify that, but that is the number we have right now. With respect to the safeguards, as Michèle mentioned, the form of the safeguard was a tariff rate quota where a quantity was coming in surtax-free, and only the products that were above the quantity were hit with a surtax.

Finance committee  That's right. But we'll get back to the committee with the precise figure.

Finance committee  Clause 1 removes the prohibition against further orders where there's a two-year period.

Finance committee  That's right.

Finance committee  That's right. They remove the moratorium of two years, and if the previous measure was less than 180 days, the moratorium is one year. These are repealed for a two-year period and reinstated two years after royal assent of the bill.

Finance committee  Correct.

Finance committee  Currently, for steel products, there are 77 anti-dumping and countervailing measures against 25 countries. There are still a number of measures in place and trade remedies to counter dumping and subsidizing. In this case, safeguards are in response to the import increase, which is higher than expected and difficult to manage.

Finance committee  Provisional safeguards can be implemented under critical circumstances. We then have 200 days to try to stabilize the market and, parallel to that, an independent inquiry takes place. So there were not really any other specific expectations. Safeguards can even be viewed separately—in other words, an attempt is made to stabilize the market for 200 days, while an in-depth inquiry is conducted on those imports.

Finance committee  The bill is trying to give the government flexibility to take the necessary measures if the circumstances change. As Ms. Govier said, during the process, we relied on the data for a certain period of time. The global steel market, for example, is especially subject to significant distortions.

Finance committee  As we said, the process in terms of the provisional safeguards started in October. After its inquiry, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal concluded that, for two types of products—heavy plate and stainless steel wire—the safeguards established, although not permanent, had a maximum length of three years, under our WTO obligations.

Finance committee  That's right. As we mentioned earlier, nothing changes in the legislation in terms of the process, the standards that must be met or the solutions that can be implemented. The only change proposed in the bill is the obtaining of a two-year moratorium in terms of the period during which a new safeguard measure cannot be imposed for a product that had already been subject to a safeguard.

Finance committee  It should be understood that safeguards apply to fairly traded goods. We are not talking about imports that are subject to dumping or subsidizing, which go through the normal trade remedy system. So the safeguards apply to imports that are not subject to market distortions such as dumping or subsidizing.

Finance committee  If I understand you, this is not with respect to the surtaxes that were imposed during the provisional period for safeguards. It's surtaxes in the context of the countermeasures against the United States.