Canada Files WTO Challenge on Broad Swath of US Trade Remedy Practices

Canada has filed a wide-ranging WTO case ( DS535 ) against the United States on various aspects of Washington’s trade remedy practices, citing examples affecting several countries and that in some cases date back several years. The 32-page complaint was submitted on 20 December and circulated on 10 January. The first seven pages of the document cover six types of “measures” in relation to US anti-dumping and countervailing duty policies, with the remaining text filled with annexes detailing examples of the alleged violations. These examples span over two decades and have been flagged as evidence “in part” of Canada’s concerns. In this context, the complaint also says that the different US measures violate, depending on the measure involved, certain aspects of the Anti-Dumping Agreement, Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) Agreement, Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. The complaint drew swift condemnation from US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who called the charges “groundless” and deemed the consultations request a “broad and ill-advised attack on the US trade remedies system.” The US official also warned that the move would be counterproductive for Ottawa, helping other economies instead. “For example, if the US removed the...