In my opinion is we need to lay this puppy to rest. Having Canadian corn users fighting with grain corn producers makes no sense at all, especially when it doesn’t really matter to the Americans. Lawyers representing the Animal Industry Corn Users suggest, if the Canada Border Services Agency follows its own guidelines, duties on U.S. corn entering Canada will be reduced substantially when it announces final subsidy and dumping determinations March 15.
Investigations into complaints from Canadian corn growers alleging harm from subsidized US grain corn dumped into Canada, the CBSA imposed provisional antidumping and countervailing duties totalling $1.65 U.S. per bushel imported unprocessed U.S. grain corn. Lawyer Peter Clark suggests inflated figures were used to set those duties. “They added in margins of things like 40 and 50 cents a bushel at the elevator when all of the economic literature says its 10 or 11 cents,” said Clark. “They indicated the corn had to be delivered, at the elevator’s cost, from the farmers’ fields on average a hundred miles when we know that in the U.S., an elevator will tend to draw, on average within a 20 mile radius of the elevator and in fact most of it is within eight to 14 miles.”
Clark suggests the more accurate numbers would justify eliminating the antidumping duty and significantly reducing the countervailing duty. Meanwhile the Canadian International Trade Tribunal is expected to issue its final injury determination in mid-April. At that time, if it finds the U.S. imports are hurting Canadian growers, the new duties will take effect but, if the CITT finds no injury, the case ends and duties already collected will be refunded.