Commerce Ruling Finds
Canada Cattle Dumping

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commerce Department last week ruled in favor of the U.S. group R-CALF in a case alleging "dumping" of Canadian cattle.

The department's "final ruling" upheld preliminary findings that seven Canadian feedlots were selling cattle to the U.S. at a price below the cost of production, and set compensatory import duty levels ranging from 3.86 percent to 15.69 percent. At those rates, actual duties are estimated to range from $31.27 per head to $127.09 per head. One feedlot was found to have sold cattle at virtual breakeven and would face no penalties; exporters other than those investigated would face a rate of 5.63 percent.

The duties are contingent upon a finding of "injury" to U.S. cattlemen by the International Trade Commission, which must rule by Nov. 17. In a separate but related "countervailing duty" case charging the Canadians with unfair export subsidies, Commerce set duties at zero.

C-CALF founder and president Leo McDonnell Jr., Columbus, Mont., hailed the Commerce ruling.

"U.S. cattle producers have known all along that Canadian cattle are being sold in the United States at dumped prices," McDonnell said. "R-CALF is pleased that the Department of Commerce has confirmed what is obvious to us."