ARCHIVED - Canadian International Trade Tribunal

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SECTION IV—OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST

4.1 Organizational Structure

Under the CITT Act, the Tribunal may be composed of up to nine full-time members, including a chairperson and two vice-chairpersons, who are appointed by the Governor in Council for a term of up to five years. Currently, the Tribunal is funded for seven members. The Chairperson is the Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for the assignment of cases to the members and for the management of the Tribunal’s workload and resources. The Tribunal is supported by a permanent staff of 77, including members, with the principal officers being:

• the Secretary, responsible for relations with the public and parties and the court registry functions of the Tribunal;

• the Director General of Research, responsible for the investigative portion of inquiries, including fact-finding relating to trade, economic, commercial and tariff matters;

• the General Counsel, responsible for the provision of legal services; and

• the Director of Corporate Services, responsible for corporate services.

4.2 Stakeholder Expectations

The Tribunal strived to meet the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders through its annual meeting with the Bench and Bar Committee, composed of a number of lawyers nominated by the Canadian Bar Association, two lawyers with the Department of Justice and a trade consultant invited by the Tribunal. These meetings provided an opportunity for participants to present their views and concerns about the Tribunal’s processes and procedures and to propose changes for improvements. For example, a subcommittee on appeals was struck for the purpose of trying to standardize the Tribunal’s forms and procedures for appeals to bring them in line with those used in other areas of the Tribunal’s mandate. For more information on this subcommittee, please visit the Tribunal’s Web site at www.citt-tcce.gc.ca/publicat/index_e.asp#2.

Stakeholder expectations include:

• Parties—Litigants include domestic producers, exporters, importers, potential suppliers and consumer groups. They typically want responsive service, the timely processing of cases, information about cases and access to Tribunal files.

• Counsel—Lawyers and trade consultants who represent parties want responsive service and access to case files, decisions and staff reports. They also expect the information to be provided to them by the Tribunal in hard copy and electronic format.

• Governor in Council/Minister of Finance—As noted above, the Government looks to the Tribunal for reliable economic and trade analysis and advice, usually within compressed time frames, and relies on the Tribunal for the purpose of meeting Canada’s trade obligations.

• Public—At the highest level, Canada’s business sector and its trading partners throughout the world expect a fair and open trading system, and Canadians expect a more competitive Canadian industry in the global trade environment, as well as competitive prices.

• Suppliers to Federal Government and Government Institutions—Suppliers expect fair and impartial decisions relating to procurement complaints and recommendations to improve procurement practices.

4.3 List of Legislation Governing the Work of the Tribunal

Canadian International Trade Tribunal Act	R.S.C. 1985 (4th Supp.), c. 47
Customs Act	R.S.C. 1985 (2d Supp.), c. 1
Excise Tax Act	R.S.C. 1985, c. E-15
Energy Administration Act	R.S.C. 1985, c. E-6
Special Import Measures Act	R.S.C. 1985, c. S-15
Special Import Measures Regulations	SOR/84-927
Canadian International Trade Tribunal Regulations	S.O.R./89-35
Canadian International Trade Tribunal Procurement Inquiry Regulations	S.O.R./93-602
Canadian International Trade Tribunal Rules	S.O.R./91-499

4.4 Tribunal Publications

For a complete list of Tribunal publications, please see the Tribunal Web site at www.citt-tcce.gc.ca/publicat/index_e.asp.

4.5 Further Information

Requests for information should be addressed to:

The Secretary
Canadian International Trade Tribunal
Standard Life Centre
333 Laurier Avenue West
17th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0G7

Telephone: 613-993-3595
Fax: 613-998-1322
E-mail:

Web site: www.citt-tcce.gc.ca

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¹ . In other tribunals, such as courts of justice, cases can be put in a queue so as to ensure their orderly, more or less, serial disposition. Although this approach occasionally may delay individual cases, it does effectively and evenly allocate resources. By way of contrast, all the cases that the Tribunal adjudicates (except for appeals) must be completed within strict statutory or government-mandated deadlines. Therefore, the Tribunal has no option but to deal with the cases as they come in and to work on them in parallel. This can lead to “bunching” or peak workload situations, which impose great strain on its members, staff and other resources.

² . “Dumping” refers to goods sold by foreign exporters in the Canadian market below their normal selling price.

³ . “Subsidizing” occurs when goods imported into Canada benefit from specific foreign government financial assistance that is not generally available under normal market conditions.

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