Red Raspberries: Effective Dispute Settlement in the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement

By negotiating the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, the Canadian government sought to ensure its exporters more secure and predictable access to the huge United States market, where a majority of Canadian foreign trade is conducted. Canadian exporters were especially concerned with the increased imposition of antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) by the United States. Trade laws in the United States are effected through the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the International Trade Administration of the Department of Commerce (ITA). These bodies are central to the bifurcated, quasi-judicial administrative system used in the United States to resolve antidumping and countervailing duty complaints.

The ITC determines whether the imported product has materially injured a domestic producer, and the ITA determines the amount of subsidy or dumping margin which exists.