ARCHIVED - Canadian International Trade Tribunal - Report

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Strategic Outcome

Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

Results under the Tribunal’s three distinct program activities are to support its strategic outcome, which, in turn, contributes to Canada’s competitiveness and to a fair and secure marketplace. The following section highlights the Tribunal’s ongoing work under each program activity and its performance in 2009-2010.

Program Activity 1: Adjudication of Trade Cases (quasi-judicial role)

The Tribunal inquires, under SIMA, into whether dumped or subsidized imports have caused, or are threatening to cause, injury to a domestic industry. It also inquires into complaints by potential suppliers concerning procurement by the federal government that is covered by applicable trade agreements. It also hears appeals of decisions of the CBSA made under the Customs Act and SIMA and of the Minister of National Revenue under the Excise Tax Act.

Program Activity: Adjudication of Trade Cases (quasi-judicial role)

2009-2010 Financial Resources ($ thousands)			2009-2010 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending	Planned	Actual	Difference
6,071	7,104	6,899	57	53	4

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status	Performance Summary
Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases and government-requested inquiries into economic, trade and tariff matters within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.	Percentage of all decisions that are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies.	Less than 2% of all decisions rendered are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies.	Met all	The Tribunal’s performance in this regard has to be measured over a five-year period to be meaningful. Between 2005-2006 and 2009-2010, 1.8% of the Tribunal’s decisions were overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal. There have been no applications by parties for review of the Tribunal’s decisions before binational panels or the WTO dispute settlement panel in the last five years.
Tribunal’s decisions are fair, impartial and based on quality information.	Percentage of decisions under judicial review dealing specifically with “due process” that are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies.	Less than 1% of all decisions rendered are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies on judicial review dealing specifically with “due process”.	Exceeded	No decisions have been overturned on this ground over the last five years.
Information available to the public	Percentage of notices, decisions, guidelines for all areas of the Tribunal’s mandate and practice notices that are accessible to the public through the Tribunal’s Web site, the Canada Gazette or MERX.	100% of notices, decisions, guidelines for all areas of the Tribunal’s mandate and practice notices are accessible to the public through the Tribunal’s Web site, the Canada Gazette or MERX.	Met all	All notices, practice notices, decisions and guidelines for all areas of the Tribunal’s mandate were distributed to interested parties in cases, published on the Tribunal’s Web site and, in the case of notices, published in the Canada Gazette or on MERX.
Decisions rendered within statutory deadlines	Percentage of decisions1 published within statutory deadlines.	100% of statutory deadlines are met.	Met all	In 2009-2010, 172 decisions on trade remedies and procurement cases were issued. All these decisions were issued within the statutory deadlines.
Decisions on appeals rendered within internal deadlines.	Percentage of decisions on appeals published within internal deadlines.	70% of internal deadlines are met.	Met all	Of the 11 appeal decisions issued in this fiscal year, 9 (82%) were issued within the self-imposed time frame, an improvement over the last fiscal year (45%).
1. During the fiscal year, the Tribunal adopted a new methodology for calculating the number of decisions subject to statutory deadlines, which came into effect in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The adoption of this new methodology has been accounted for retroactively resulting in the following impact on comparative data for 2008-2009: the original number of 44 decisions stated in 2008-2009 has now been adjusted to 104 decisions.

Performance Analysis

Trade Remedies Cases

The Tribunal issued decisions following 5 preliminary injury inquiries, 4 final injury inquiries, 5 notices of expiry and 3 expiry reviews, for a total of 17 decisions subject to statutory deadlines. The Tribunal fully met its performance targets for meeting statutory deadlines and for making information available to the public.

Procurement Cases

At the end of the fiscal year, a record high of 154 procurement complaints had been received, and 10 were still outstanding from 2008-2009. The large influx of new cases can, in large part, be attributed to the increase in government procurement resulting from Canada’s Economic Action Plan and to a greater awareness, in the marketplace, of the Tribunal’s existence. In 2009-2010, the Tribunal had a total of 155 cases subject to statutory deadlines (7 cases were withdrawn and 2 were remanded). In all, the Tribunal fully met its performance target for meeting statutory deadlines and for making information available to the public.

Judicial Review

In rare cases, binational or international panels convened under international law are called upon to review Tribunal findings. In 2009-2010, the Tribunal maintained its strong record in terms of its decisions being upheld on judicial review.

Over a five-year period, the ratio of overturned decisions to decisions subject to judicial review or appeal was 1.8 percent for the period ending March 31, 2010, thereby meeting the Tribunal’s target of less than 2 percent. None of the cases that have been overturned in the last five years dealt specifically with “due process”, which exceeds the Tribunal’s target of less than 1 percent of decisions that have been overturned for reasons of “due process”. There have been no new applications by parties for the review of Tribunal decisions before binational panels or WTO dispute settlement panel in the last fiscal years. The following table shows the applications and disposal of requests for judicial review or appeals for the five-year period. In summary, the Tribunal maintained its strong record in terms of its decisions being upheld by national and international appeal bodies.

Treatment of Tribunal’s Decisions Before the Federal Court of Canada

	5-year Period
Decisions subject to judicial review or appeal1	779
Decisions for which applications for judicial review or appeal were filed	85
Decisions for which applications for judicial review or appeal were withdrawn or discontinued	32
Decisions for which the applications for judicial review were dismissed	37
Decisions overturned2	14
Percentage of all decisions rendered that were overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal or an international appeal body	1.8%
1. For the purpose of this table, cases are all decisions and reports issued, including decisions not to initiate procurement inquiries. The number of cases corresponds to that of the caseload table found in the Tribunal’s Annual Report and excludes withdrawals. 2. Overturned also includes decisions remanded to the Tribunal. No decisions were overturned for reasons of “due process” in the five-year period ending March 31, 2010.

Appeal Cases Issued Within Internal Deadlines

There is no legislative deadline imposed for decisions on appeals of decisions of the CBSA or of the Minister of National Revenue. However, the Tribunal has adopted an informal, voluntary internal standard of issuing such decisions within 120 days of the hearing of an appeal. Of the 11 appeal decisions issued in 2009-2010, 9 were published within the voluntary time frame. Moreover, the average time between the hearing and the decision has decreased, from 169.9 days in 2008-2009 to 89.3 days in 2009-2010. Because of competing priorities in the first part of 2009-2010, the Tribunal did not issue as many appeal decisions as in previous years. However, for the appeal decisions issued, its new standard processes enabled it to exceed its target for meeting internal deadlines.

Lessons Learned

1. Pre-hearing Conference

The Tribunal decided to hold a pre-hearing conference in one of its appeal cases in order to deal in advance with preliminary matters that are usually addressed at the beginning of a hearing. The issues that were addressed included, among other things, the qualification of witnesses, time allocation and the procedural rights of parties. The outcome was successful, as counsel involved in that particular case were able to reach a settlement before the hearing. It is a practice that the Tribunal intends to adopt on a more regular basis in the future in order to manage hearings more efficiently, while saving time and money for the Tribunal and the parties involved on a case.

2. Orders Issued for the Production of Questionnaires

In order to conduct its market analysis in the context of SIMA inquiries, the Tribunal must gather data from market participants such as domestic producers, importers and purchasers of particular goods. Some companies neglect or are reluctant to provide the information requested, even after multiple attempts by the Tribunal’s staff to contact them. Over the last fiscal year, the Tribunal has adopted a more proactive approach and has issued orders more frequently when respondents fail to cooperate with the Tribunal. The experience has been positive as overall compliance with the requirement to complete questionnaires improved, Tribunal staff spent less time dealing with uncooperative respondents and more complete data were collected.

3. Trade Remedies and Procurement Case Management

During the year, the Tribunal contracted for an independent review of its trade remedies and procurement case processes. Overall, the results were very positive. The independent reviewers concluded the following: process management properly integrates the roles of the Research Branch, Legal Services and the Secretariat, meets legislative requirements and is responsive to the needs of members; an effective, rigorous and timely oversight process is in place; and senior management regularly deliberates on risk assessments. As well, there are appropriate performance measures linked to planned results and legislative requirements.

However, the review identified two matters for consideration.

The review recommended that the Tribunal document more fully certain of its processes and procedures to enable new staff to more effectively and efficiently contribute to the organization. In this regard, the Tribunal has reviewed its existing documentation and has decided, as a first step, to improve its documentation for expiries, expiry reviews and interim reviews of trade remedies cases.

The review also recommended that the Tribunal consider the need for a cost-benefit analysis for an integrated and automated case management system in support of trade remedies and procurement processes. The Tribunal is currently reviewing this recommendation. In the interim, it is making efforts to further automate its case management system and, wherever possible and desirable, to eliminate duplication and foster integration of existing systems.

Program Activity 2: General Economic Inquiries and References (advisory role)

The Tribunal inquires into and provides advice on such economic, trade and tariff issues as are referred to the Tribunal by the Governor in Council or the Minister of Finance. It also investigates requests from Canadian producers for tariff relief on imported textile inputs that they use in their production operations and makes recommendations to the Minister of Finance on the requests.

Program Activity: General Economic Inquiries and References (advisory role)

2009-2010 Financial Resources ($ thousands)			2009-2010 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending	Planned	Actual	Difference
88	113	110	1	1	0

Expected Results	Performance Indicators	Targets	Performance Status	Performance Summary
Tribunal’s recommendations on economic, trade, tariff matters and standing textile references are fair, impartial and based on quality information.	Percentage of recommendations and reports that meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	100% of recommendations meet the terms of reference and provide requested information.	Met all	Two recommendations submitted to the Minister of Finance were accepted by the Government and no requests for additional information from the Minister of Finance were received.
Reports and recommendations to Government or Minister of Finance published within statutory deadlines.	Percentage of reports and recommendations to Government or Minister of Finance that are published within statutory deadlines.	100% of reports and recommendations are published within statutory deadlines.	Met all	During the fiscal year, the Tribunal issued 2 recommendations and both were issued prior to the deadlines mandated by the Government in the terms of reference for the standing textile reference.

Performance Analysis

The Tribunal normally issues its recommendations, with reasons, to the Minister of Finance within 100 days from the date of commencement of the inquiry. In exceptional cases, where the Tribunal determines that critical circumstances exist, it will issue its recommendations within an earlier specified time frame.

During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the Tribunal did not receive any requests for tariff relief. With regard to two requests received in the previous fiscal year, the Tribunal met its performance target in respect of content and its target in respect of deadlines.

Program Activity 3: Internal Services

The Tribunal’s internal services program activity includes the following key functions and costs that support the Tribunal: senior management, strategic planning, finances, human resources, procurement, materiel management, accommodation, security and information management/information technology support.

Program Activity: Internal Services

2009-2010 Financial Resources ($ thousands)			2009-2010 Human Resources (FTEs)
Planned Spending	Total Authorities	Actual Spending	Planned	Actual	Difference
3,371	4,060	3,943	24	24	0

Performance Analysis

In 2009-2010, the Tribunal’s supporting priorities remained investment in its people, sound management practices and improved service delivery.

Under investment in its people, the Tribunal increased its recruitment activities in response to the increase in workload resulting from the global economic downturn and offered many training and development opportunities to all its current and new employees.

Sound management practices were further reinforced through the integration of the MAF into the Tribunal’s day-to-day management. In response to the recommendations resulting from the 2008-2009 MAF final report, the Tribunal’s management team drafted a management action plan. By the end of 2009-2010, most of the recommendations had been implemented, and all remaining recommendations will be completed in 2010-2011. Also, the Tribunal used its case status report to develop a more integrated information management system to track all case work, case statistics and the Tribunal’s performance on case work. This integrated system will increase efficiency, provide regular performance feedback to management and allow for corrective measures if needed.

The Tribunal developed an integrated information technology plan and continued the development of the ToolKit system. However, the development of its Information Technology Architecture Plan was postponed until 2010-2011 in order to be able to utilize the new integrated information technology plan as a roadmap.

Lesson Learned

In 2009-2010, the Tribunal realized more than ever the importance of good planning, as it managed an exceptionally large volume of cases. The Tribunal considers that cornerstones of good planning are of course the Report on Plans and Priorities and the Departmental Performance Report. In addition, the Tribunal uses a range of other tools to ensure good long-term and short-term planning. At its September 2009 planning meeting, the Tribunal developed a strategic plan for 2010-2013, which is published on its Web site. On a quarterly basis, the Tribunal reviews its risks and plans, and amends them as appropriate and necessary. Important changes are reported in the DPR. On a bi-weekly basis, the Tribunal reviews its case work and takes remedial action as necessary.

Benefits to Canadians

The Tribunal continued to focus its attention on its four key corporate priorities, which are to process cases within statutory deadlines and maintain quality standards, to improve service delivery, to invest in its people and to apply sound management practices. All these priorities supported its strategic outcome, which is a fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. For Canadian manufacturers and producers, this represents access to fair and efficient processes for investigating complaints of injury caused by unfairly traded imports, for investigating complaints on designated federal government procurement processes and for hearing appeals on customs and excise matters. For the Government, the Tribunal provides reliable economic and trade analyses and advice which enable it to make sound and informed decisions about the Canadian economy. Through the above, the Tribunal contributes to a favourable environment for a fair and secure trading system for individual Canadians and the Canadian business sector.

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