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Fair, timely and transparent disposition of international trade cases, procurement cases and government-mandated inquiries within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction
The following section describes the Tribunal’s program activities and identifies the expected results, performance indicators and targets for each of them. This section also explains how the Tribunal plans on meeting the expected results and presents the financial and non-financial resources that will be dedicated to each program activity.
This section contains a discussion of plans surrounding the following program activities:
The Tribunal’s adjudicative mandate is to provide a fair, timely and transparent trade remedies system to Canada’s business sector, thereby preserving confidence in the Canadian market, to the benefit of Canadian businesses and consumers. The Tribunal acts as an independent, quasi-judicial decision-making body that derives its adjudication authority from the CITT Act, SIMA, the Customs Act and the Excise Tax Act. It operates within Canada’s trade remedies system, applying existing policies and laws on trade agreements seeking to address unfair competition in the domestic market or provide emergency protection against imported items that are seen to cause injury to a domestic industry. The Tribunal also hears appeals from decisions of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the CBSA. It has also been designated as the bid challenge authority under the AIT, NAFTA, the AGP, the CCFTA, the CPFTA and the CCOFTA.
In its quasi-judicial role, the Tribunal’s caseload is comprised of the following:
2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
---|---|---|
7,263 | 7,362 | 7,293 |
2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
---|---|---|
56 | 57 | 57 |
Program Activity Expected Results |
Performance Indicators | Targets |
---|---|---|
Tribunal decisions are fair, impartial and based on quality information. |
Tribunal decisions are overturned by the following national and international appeal bodies:
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Not more than 2 percent of all decisions rendered over the most recent five-year period are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies. |
Soundness of the Tribunal’s decisions under judicial review that are overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal and/or international appeal bodies based on “due process” not being followed. | Less than 1 percent of all decisions on “due process” will be overturned. | |
Tribunal notices, decisions and guidelines for all areas of its mandate and practice notices are accessible to the public. | All notices, practice notices, decisions and guidelines for all areas of the Tribunal’s mandate are accessible to the public. | |
Decisions are issued within statutory deadlines. The Tribunal’s decisions regarding dumping and/or subsidizing, safeguard inquiries and procurement complaints are subject to statutory deadlines. | All decisions are issued within the legislated deadline. | |
Appeal decisions are issued within internal deadlines. There is no statutory deadline imposed for appeals of decisions of the CBSA and Minister of National Revenue. However, the Tribunal has adopted an informal, voluntary standard of issuing such decisions within 120 days of the hearing of an appeal. | 70 percent of internal deadlines are met. |
In order to achieve the expected result for its quasi-judicial role, the Tribunal plans to undertake the following activities:
The Tribunal plays an advisory role when requested by the Government to recommend measures to alleviate injury to domestic producers pursuant to a safeguard inquiry. Periodically, the Government may also direct the Tribunal to inquire into general economic, trade or tariff matters. In such inquiries, the Tribunal has the power to conduct research, receive submissions, hold hearings and report with recommendations, as required, to the Government or the Minister of Finance. When these requests arise, the Tribunal faces a strain on its resources and must meet very strict government-imposed deadlines.
The Tribunal has received a standing reference from the Minister of Finance to investigate requests from domestic producers for tariff (import tax) relief on imported textile inputs for use in their manufacturing operations and make recommendations to the Minister that would maximize the net economic benefits to Canada.
In its advisory role, the Tribunal’s caseload is comprised of the following:
2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
---|---|---|
89 | 89 | 89 |
2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 1 |
Program Activity Expected Results |
Performance Indicators | Targets |
---|---|---|
Tribunal recommendations on economic, trade, tariff matters and the standing textile reference are fair, impartial and based on quality information. | Recommendations meet the terms of reference and provide requested information. An indicator of the soundness of the Tribunal’s decisions is the number of requests for additional information from the Minister of Finance. | All recommendations meet the terms of reference. |
Reports, decisions and recommendations are published within government-mandated deadlines. The Tribunal’s recommendations regarding the tariff reference and economic inquiries are subject to statutory deadlines. | All recommendations are published within statutory deadlines. |
During the 2011-2012 fiscal year, the Tribunal did not receive any new requests for tariff relief on textile inputs. However, the Tribunal still allocated modest human and financial resources to this program activity to maintain a core level of knowledge and expertise in this highly specialized area should the need again arise. Further, the Tribunal is required to report on the standing textile reference in its annual report.
Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that are administered to support the needs of programs and other corporate obligations of an organization. These groups are Management and Oversight Services, Communications Services, Legal Services, Human Resources Management Services, Financial Management Services, Information Management Services, Information Technology Services, Real Property Services, Materiel Services, Acquisition Services, and Travel and Other Administrative Services. Internal Services include only those activities and resources that apply across an organization and not those that apply specifically to a program.
2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
---|---|---|
2,543 | 2,444 | 2,513 |
2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 |
---|---|---|
20 | 19 | 19 |
The Tribunal’s planning highlights for Internal Services include the following: