[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 104 (Wednesday, June 1, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Page 31427]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-2773]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration


North American Free-Trade Agreement, Article 1904; NAFTA Panel 
Reviews; Notice of Panel Decision

AGENCY: NAFTA Secretariat, United States Section, International Trade 
Administration, Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of panel decision.

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SUMMARY: On May 20, 2005, the binational panel issued its decision in 
the review of the final results of the affirmative countervailing duty 
re-determination on remand made by the International Trade 
Administration (ITA) respecting Certain Softwood Lumber Products from 
Canada (Secretariat File No. USA-CDA-2002-1904-03). The panel issued 
its third remand to the Department of Commerce. The Department will 
return the third re-determination based on the remand instructions of 
the panel. A copy of the complete panel decision is available from the 
NAFTA Secretariat.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Caratina L. Alston, United States 
Secretary, NAFTA Secretariat, Suite 2061, 14th and Constitution Avenue, 
Washington, DC 20230, (202) 482-5438.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Chapter 19 of the North American Free-Trade 
Agreement (``Agreement'') establishes a mechanism to replace domestic 
judicial review of final determinations in antidumping and 
countervailing duty cases involving imports from the other country with 
review by independent binational panels. When a Request for 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.
    Under Article 1904 of the Agreement, which came into force on 
January 1, 1994, the Government of the United States, the Government of 
Canada and the Government of Mexico established Rules of Procedure for 
Article 1904 Binational Panel Reviews (``Rules''). These Rules were 
published in the Federal Register on February 23, 1994 (59 FR 8686).
    Panel Decision: On May 20, 2005, the Binational Panel issued its 
third remand to the Department of Commerce's final countervailing duty 
determination on remand. The following issues were remanded to the 
Department:
    1. The Department is directed, subject to the conditions set forth 
at the end of Section V of the opinion, to reopen the record for the 
limited purpose of developing price information for sales reported by 
syndicates in the Province of Quebec and to verify such information to 
the extent it feels appropriate. The Department is directed to grant 
sufficient time to accomplish this task, and to recalculate the Quebec 
benchmarks including this price information;
    2. The Department is directed to recalculate the profit earned by 
log sellers in Quebec starting with a blended price combining both 
private logs and imported logs;
    3. The Department is directed to grant exclusions from the 
countervailing duty order to sales by Ontario companies for which the 
``input source'' was unsubsidized, and to exclude those sales from the 
denominator of its benefit/countervailing duty rate calculations;
    4. The Department is directed to include in its calculations for 
Ontario, the profit earned by private log sellers; and
    5. The Department is directed to match the numerators to the 
denominators of its countervailing duty rate calculations.
    Commerce was directed to issue it's determination on remand within 
45 days of the issuance of the pane decision or within 45 days of the 
receipt of information obtained pursuant to the reopening of the 
record.

    Dated: May 26, 2005.
Caratina L. Alston,
United States Secretary, NAFTA Secretariat.
[FR Doc. E5-2773 Filed 5-31-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P