The impact of Canadian anti-dumping and countervailing measures was analyzed in a report issued by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal on October 9, 2014. The report, written by the CITT's Trade Remedies Investigative Branch, highlights the impact of these measures on domestic shipments, investments, employment and imports, analyzed for a period of 24 years, from 1989 to 2013.
The CITT report evaluates the impact of Canadian anti-dumping and countervailing measures by estimating what Canadian shipments, investments, employment and imports would have been if the trends that existed prior to the imposition of the measures had continued. The report finds that due to the remedial effect of anti-dumping and countervailing measures, the actual values of shipments, investments and imports, as well as employment levels, in the years following the imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing measures do not accurately reflect the extent to which the measures affected those indicators. As anti-dumping and countervailing measures result in increased prices of imports covered by the measure, imports for those products tend to decrease, while at the same time Canadian shipments, investments and employment will increase. Therefore, evaluating the impact with the measures in place would not accurately reflect the extent to which the measures actually impacted the market.
Notwithstanding the decrease by 63% in Canadian anti-dumping and countervailing measures in place from 1989 to 2013, the findings reported by the CITT show that, as of December 31, 2013, there were 48 anti-dumping and countervailing measures in place, and their impact on Canadian shipments, investments, jobs and imports has increased. According to the CITT report, these measures affected $7.7 billion in Canadian shipments, $0.5 billion in investments, and nearly 22,000 jobs in the domestic industries directly benefitting from the measures. In addition, the measures affected $1.2 billion in imports.
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