Trade & Manufacturing - News of Note - December 2017

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Canada Requests WTO Consultations And Files Notice Of Intent To Seek NAFTA Chapter 19 Binational Panel Review In Softwood Lumber Case

Manuel Sanchez Miranda

Canada has taken steps to pursue parallel WTO and NAFTA actions to challenge the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (USDOC) final determinations in the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of softwood lumber imports from Canada.

On November 2, 2017, the USDOC calculated final AD margins ranging from 3.20 percent to 8.89 percent and final CVD margins ranging from 3.34 percent to 18.19 percent on Canadian softwood lumber imports. The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) is scheduled to make its affirmative final injury determination by December 18, 2017. If the ITC makes an affirmative injury determination, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to resume collection of cash deposits equal to the applicable AD and CVD rates.

As regards its WTO complaint, Canada officially requested consultations with the United States on November 29, 2017. Next steps include the filing of a reply submission by the United States, after which the parties will hold consultations for 60 days. If no mutually agreed solution is reached within this time period, Canada may request the establishment of a WTO panel to review the U.S. determinations.

In addition to WTO proceedings regarding USDOC’s final AD and CVD determinations, Canada also separately filed a notice of intent to seek binational panel review under Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This is noteworthy given the United States’ position in the ongoing NAFTA renegotiations that Chapter 19 panel reviews should be eliminated, while Canada and Mexico are keen to preserve this dispute settlement mechanism.

3D Printed Aircraft Parts Ready For Takeoff?

Patrick Togni

Three-Dimensional (3D) printing continues to reshape manufacturing across a broad segment of industries, including aviation. Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing refers to processes that build up a 3D object in layers by depositing material. As explained in a recent article on the emergence of 3D printed parts in the aviation industry, 3D printing takes “the design of a part and then you slice it down, digitally, into multiple layers and then you effectively use an energy beam to melt that layer and fuse it to the layer below. You grow the part.”

Stakeholders are making contributions in the space in a variety of ways. For example, GE Additive recently introduced “the first BETA machine developed as part of its Project A.T.L.A.S program” (Additive Technology Large Area System), which was “developed to provide manufacturers of large parts and components with a scalable solution that can be configured and customized to their own specific industry applications.” Press reports indicate that the Project A.T.L.A.S BETA machine is able to manufacture parts as large as one cubic meter. Aviation industry end-users, including the military, are taking notice of the potential benefits of 3D printing. The Defense Strategies Institute will host the 2nd Military Additive Manufacturing Summit on February 1-2, 2018, in Tampa, Florida. The agenda includes several relevant topics, including “Air Force Initiatives to Utilize Additive Manufacturing for Improved Sustainability” and “Redefining Manufacturing: From Rapid Prototyping to Functional Production.”

 

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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