Japan and Australia noted that after several years of decreased numbers of safeguard initiations and impositions of safeguard measures by WTO members, those figures have now increased. The two countries reiterated their concern over what they view as the inappropriate use of the instrument.

Review of legislative notifications

The Committee reviewed notifications of new or amended national safeguard legislation or regulations from the Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia and the United Kingdom, and continued its review of legislative notifications from Cameroon and Ghana.

Specific notifications of safeguard actions

Notifications of various safeguard actions from the following members were reviewed by the Committee: the European Union (1 investigation); Indonesia (6 investigations); Madagascar (5 investigations); Morocco (4 investigations); the Philippines, South Africa and Tunisia (1 investigation each); Türkiye (6 investigations); the United Kingdom (1 investigation); and the United States (2 investigations). Safeguard actions taken by Indonesia, Madagascar (a least developed country), Morocco and Türkiye accounted for 75% of all the safeguard actions reviewed.

Eight members took the floor in respect to the European Union's update of the status of its safeguard measure on certain steel products.

Seven members took the floor in respect to the latest status of the United Kingdom's safeguard measure on certain steel products.

Japan requested two specific items, under which it expressed various concerns. One item concerned Viet Nam's safeguard measure on “certain semi-finished and finished products of alloy and non-alloy steel” and the other concerned Indonesia's safeguard measure on “articles of apparel and clothing accessories”.

Creation of online portal for submission of SG notifications

Under “Other Business”, the Chair provided an update regarding the creation by the WTO Secretariat of an online portal for the submission of SG notifications. The Chair reported that the project has reached the prototype stage.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Committee on Safeguards is scheduled for the week of 28 October 2024.

Background

Under the WTO rules, a member may apply measures to imports of a product temporarily (take “safeguard” actions) through higher tariffs or other measures if it determines through an investigation that increased imports of a product are causing or threatening to cause serious injury to its domestic industry. Unlike anti-dumping duties, safeguard measures cover imports from all sources, although imports from developing country members with a small share of imports are exempted through special and differential treatment provisions.

More background on safeguards is available here.

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