On January 28, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced that it received the first request for a panel review with the US Section of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Secretariat to inspect the final results of the 2006-2007 antidumping (AD) duty administrative review made by the International Trade Administration, with respect to carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod from Canada. The final results in question were published in the Federal Register on December 18, 2008.
On January 16, 2009, Ivaco Rolling Mills 2004 L.P. and Sivaco Ontario, a division of Sivaco Wire Group 2004 L.P. (collectively Ivaco) filed the first request for the panel review respecting the final results of the determined final dumping rate of 2.44 percent against Canadian wire rod in the administrative review covering the one-year period ended September 30, 2007.
The North American Free Trade Agreement has established a mechanism to replace domestic judicial reviews of final determinations in antidumping and countervailing duty cases involving imports from a NAFTA country with reviews by independent bi-national panels. When a request for a panel review is filed, a panel is established to act in place of national courts to review expeditiously the final determination to determine whether it conforms with the antidumping or countervailing duty law of the country that made the determination.