Merrill & Ring v. Canada

This case concerns a claim by the Investor in respect of the implementation of Canada‘s Log Export Regime to the Investor‘s timber operations in British Columbia and the requirement that any of its exports be subject to a log surplus testing procedure, among other regulatory measures. The U.S. firm had contended that Canada imposed restrictions on the export of logs from Canada to the United States, and that these restrictions obliged the company to sell its products in Canada for less than they could fetch if exported to the United States. The claimant also objected to the administration of the log export regime which was viewed as exerting unfair, un-transparent and discriminatory effects.

An important issue related to the relevance of different levels of government lies in the context of "in like circumstances". The Tribunal refers to "nationality-based discrimination" and also mentions "differentiated treatment which is arbitrary and unjustified." The Tribunal rejected the claims under either standard.  With the nationality-based argument, it said there was no evidence; on the "differentiated treatment" point, it went back to its "categories" reasoning.