Frito-Lay: CITT Lays Down The Law

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal decision in Frito-Lay v. President of the CBSA, AP-2010-002 (December 21, 2012), reasons January 8, 2013, teaches Canadian importers and the CBSA a number of important lessons. Three are of particular importance: (1) burden of proof, (2) jurisdiction of the CITT in cases of the President's failure to respond without delay to requests for further re-determination, and (3) limitation periods applicable to claims of NAFTA tariff preference.

The President challenged the importer's appeal (trial de novo) on the basis that a spreadsheet of data presented in support of the appeal summarizing impacted importations contained errors and was therefore not reliable. While the CITT has recently (Jockey Canada) made clear that the burden of proof, other than that an importation took place, rests with the importer, the CITT flexibly accepted that clerical errors had either been corrected by the importer or were of no substantive importance