Update on Administrative Reviews for Softwood Lumber Products From Canada

The Enforcement and Compliance Agency of the International Trade Administration (ITA), Department of Commerce published on April 1, 2019 their initial findings for Softwood Lumber from Canada having to do with Anti-dumping duty (ADD) case

A-122-857 and countervailing duty (CVD) case C-122-858.

The Period of Review (POR) will be June 30, 2017 through December 31, 2018 for the ADD case and April 28, 2017 through December 31, 2018 for the CVD case.

Stating that they would be initiating the administrative reviews, the ITA then went on to give their instructions to those named within this document beginning with the notice of no sales during the period in question, which in the case of the companies noted therein is only a “proforma” reminder as all of these companies shipped within that window.

The Respondent Selection portion was of interest because while those companies applying for Administrative Review were named, the ITA made it clear that:

  • All would be receiving questionnaires that would be due 30 days from receipt of same (19 CFR 351.301(c)(1)(i))

BUT

  • Not everyone will be chosen (which was known from the beginning)

“Commerce intends to select respondents based on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for U.S. imports during the period of review. We intend to place the CBP data on the record within five days of publication of the initiation notice and to make our decision regarding respondent selection within 30 days of publication of the initiation Federal Register notice.”

The final important “take-away” from this document is that the ITA, in initiating these administrative reviews in accordance with the statutes they are guided by, intend on issuing their final results of these reviews no later than January 31, 2020.

This is important to understand because by the time the results are released, the 2nd anniversary year of these cases will have come to any end and with the anniversary date in January, a second submission for Administrative Review will have to have been submitted for the period of review (POR), 2019.

If you have any questions regarding these administrative reviews, please contact either your Livingston account manager or our regulatory affairs group at [email protected]