CBSA starts dumping and subsidizing investigations into certain oil and gas well casing

Ottawa, Ontario, August 13, 2007 -- Today the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced the initiation of its investigations into the alleged injurious dumping and subsidizing of certain seamless carbon or alloy steel oil and gas well casing, originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China.

The investigations follow a complaint filed by TenarisAlgomaTubes Inc. of Calgary, Alberta. The company alleges that the dumping and subsidizing of the goods in question are harming Canadian production by causing lost sales, price erosion, price suppression, lost revenues, reduced profitability, lost employment, underutilization of capacity and impairment to make future investments. Dumping occurs when goods are sold to importers in Canada at prices that are less than their selling prices in the exporter’s domestic market or at unprofitable prices. Subsidizing occurs when goods imported into Canada benefit from foreign government financial assistance. The Special Import Measures Act protects Canadian producers from the damaging effects of such unfair trade.

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal will now begin a preliminary inquiry to determine whether the imports are harming Canadian producers. The Tribunal will issue a decision by October 12, 2007. While the Tribunal is examining the question of injury, the CBSA will investigate whether the imports are being dumped and/or subsidized and will make a decision by November 9, 2007.

If there is a large increase in harmful imports and the Tribunal decides that retroactive application of anti-dumping or countervailing duty is justified, duty could be levied on the goods brought into Canada as of today.

A copy of the Statement of Reasons, which provides more details about these investigations, will be available on the CBSA’s Web site within 15 days. More information on the CBSA’s Anti-dumping and Countervailing Program or the Special Import Measures Act can also be found on this site.

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