International Trade committee  We always publish the initiation of a case in the Gazette, yes.

International Trade committee  In this case, we were in contact with the plaintiffs to try to provide them with as much guidance as possible. However, we are a tribunal, so we cannot be biased. We told them what type of information we needed in order to proceed. Unfortunately, in this case, they were unable to

International Trade committee  What has to happen is that your constituent has to have the support of the producers of rebar in Canada to initiate a complaint.

International Trade committee  Is he a producer?

International Trade committee  If the domestic producers of rebar were feeling that imports from particular countries--or from all countries--were causing them injury, then they would come before the tribunal.

International Trade committee  Why would he be complaining about this?

International Trade committee  The tribunal is not in possession of any complaint on rebar at the moment.

International Trade committee  Oh absolutely. It's an adversarial process. It's like civil court, in a sense. The domestic producers would make their complaint, saying that because of the way they're priced or where they're sold, imports of rebar from country X or countries X, Y, and Z are causing them injury

International Trade committee  There are a lot of technical reasons that might disqualify a case. The timeframe in government procurement cases is extremely short. Under the act, they have 10 working days from the time they knew, or should have known, the basis of their complaint to file their case. So if the

International Trade committee  In the first case, regarding butter oil, there was a general inquiry, and we made a number of recommendations to the government of what should be done in this matter. Second, the government asked us to rule on the tariff classification for goods coming into the country. The trib

International Trade committee  By representatives, do you mean members?

International Trade committee  The choice of members is made by the Governor General in Council. Normally we publish a statement of qualifications. In other words, people who have some knowledge of the area are looked for. There is an interview process, but really that's just to establish competence in the are

International Trade committee  Yes, and some have. I can't remember exactly which cases, but we have had instances. The labour union representing the workers in the bicycle industry appeared before the tribunal.

International Trade committee  No, I didn't say that. I said in some cases they have, but interested parties can register, and “interested parties” is a fairly broad definition. Somebody who is affected by the case before us can appear. They just have to register and go through some formalities, such as giving

International Trade committee  Excuse me, if you have a whole bunch of questions, and they're short, I could answer one after the other, rather than--