WTO Members Review Latest Safeguard Actions, Address WTO Reform Discussions

· Japan raised three specific items:

· one regarding the United States' safeguard measure on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells; and

· two regarding Indonesia's measures on carpet products

· articles of apparel and clothing accessories by Indnesia

At the biannual meeting of the Committee on Safeguards on 1 May, WTO members reviewed safeguard actions taken by fellow members and discussed the way forward in improving the functioning of the committee.

Notifications of various safeguard (SG) actions received since the committee's October 2022 meeting covering 24 products were reviewed at the meeting, which was chaired by Ms Maryam A. Aldoseri (Kingdom of Bahrain).

Japan, Australia and China reiterated their general concern regarding issues such as misuse of the safeguard instrument, insufficient information provided, and the numerous extensions to existing safeguard measures.

Review of legislative notifications

The committee reviewed notifications of new or amended SG legislation or regulations from El Salvador, the United States and Liberia. It also continued its review of the legislative notifications of the United Kingdom, Cameroon, Ghana and Zimbabwe.

Specific notifications of safeguard actions

Notifications of various safeguard actions from the following members were reviewed by the committee: Costa Rica; the European Union; India; Indonesia (two investigations); Madagascar (six investigations); Morocco (two investigations); the Philippines (three investigations); South Africa; Türkiye; Ukraine (two investigations); the United Kingdom; the United States; and Viet Nam (two investigations).

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

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

Ukraine notified the committee that it suspended one safeguard measure until the end of martial law in Ukraine and that it terminated one investigation without applying any measure. It explained that one of the main reasons for such actions was that the production sites were situated in the area occupied by Russia or were under attack by Russia. The parties were deprived of their rights under the WTO, Ukraine said.

Nine members took the floor to express appreciation for Ukraine's efforts to provide notifications and expressed their strong opposition to Russia's actions. Russia disagreed with the explanations and stated that it understood that the statements went beyond trade and were outside the WTO's mandate.

Japan raised three specific items: one regarding the United States' safeguard measure on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells; and two regarding Indonesia's measures on carpet products and on articles of apparel and clothing accessories. Japan explained that it had various concerns with these measures.

The chair reported to the committee on the reports she submitted to the Council for Trade in Goods, in the context of WTO reform, regarding the functioning of the committee and the response to the pandemic. Members engaged in a discussion on how the committee should pursue these issues.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the Committee on Safeguards is scheduled for the week of 23 October 2023.

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.