This practice notice is effective for proceedings commencing on or after October 1, 2026. For greater clarity, in expiry reviews, this practice notice applies to proceedings where the Tribunal’s portion of the review starts on or after October 1, 2026.
This practice notice sets out the page limits and formatting requirements that apply to written submissions filed with the Canadian International Trade Tribunal in all proceedings under the Special Import Measures Act, including appeals and all types of inquiries and reviews. These requirements are intended to support the fair, efficient and expeditious conduct of proceedings.
Parties should make every effort to file concise submissions and include only arguments and supporting evidence that are relevant to the matters at issue. Parties should avoid unnecessary repetition and focus their arguments on the issues that are material to the proceeding.
Reply submissions should be limited to responding to arguments and evidence raised in opposing parties' submissions.
Unless otherwise directed by the Tribunal, the following page limits apply:
- Initial submissions in support of or in opposition to a position: 70 pages.
- Reply submissions: 40 pages.
- The page limits apply only to written submissions. Cover pages, tables of contents, tables of authorities, appendices, exhibits (including witness statements filed in support of the submission), books of authorities and other supporting documents are not included in the page count, unless otherwise directed by the Tribunal.
- Where both a confidential and a public version of a document are filed, the applicable page limit is measured against the confidential version, as the public version may be shorter due to redactions.
- Every document prepared for use in a proceeding must be legible and comply with the Tribunal’s formatting standards:
- Page size: 21.5 cm by 28 cm (letter size).
- Font: All body text must be in a legible sans-serif font (e.g., Aptos, Arial, Calibri, Tahoma or a comparable font) in 12-point size. Footnotes and references must be no smaller than 10-point size.
- Line spacing: At least 1.5-line spacing, or no more than 30 lines per page, excluding headings. Block quotations must be indented and single-spaced. Footnotes must be single-spaced.
- Margins: At least 2.54 cm on all sides (top, bottom, left and right).
- A party that wishes to exceed a page limit must obtain leave of the Tribunal before filing its submission. The request must be made as soon as the party becomes aware of the need to do so, and at least three working days before the filing deadline, to allow the Tribunal sufficient time to consider the request. All other parties must be served with the request.
- The request must:
- identify the applicable page limit;
- state the total number of pages proposed and the number of additional pages requested; and
- provide clear and specific reasons why the additional pages are necessary.
- The Tribunal will determine each request on its merits, taking into account the circumstances of the case and the fair and efficient conduct of the proceeding. Parties should not assume that leave will be granted.
- The indicated page limits will be strictly enforced, and The Tribunal will not consider any pages that exceed the applicable limits.
- All submissions, witness statements, books of authorities and other supporting documents must comply with the Guidelines on filing documents, including the file size limit of 100 MB. Citations must respect the Tribunal’s Citing authorities practice notice.