European Commission : Trade : Safeguards

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Trade defence

Safeguards

Protection against unforeseeable surge of imports

What are safeguards?

Safeguards are intended for situations in which an EU industry is affected by an unforeseen, sharp and sudden increase of imports.

The objective is to give the industry a temporary breathing space to make necessary adjustments – safeguards always come with an obligation to restructure.

Unlike anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures, safeguards do not focus on whether trade is fair or not, so the conditions for imposing them are more stringent.

The EU has to show that the increase in imports is:

sharp
due to unforeseen developments
causing (or threatening) serious injury to domestic industry (a higher level of injury than the material injury required for anti-dumping and anti-subsidy)
and that safeguards are in the interest of the EU (a requirement beyond WTO obligations).

Another essential feature of safeguards is that they apply to all such imports from all countries (this is called erga omnes).

For these reasons, the safeguard procedure is slightly different from anti-dumping and anti-subsidy, and the decision to apply safeguards always has to be weighed very carefully. So far, safeguards have only been used sparingly by the EU.

What is surveillance?

Imports may also be subject to surveillance if the trend of imports of a product threatens to cause injury to EU producers.

Surveillance does not restrict imports – it is a system of automatic import licensing over a limited time – either retroactively or in advance.

What is TPSSM?

The Transitional Product-Specific Safeguard Mechanism (see point 16 in China WTO accession agreement) is an exception to the erga omnes rule. It will expire in 2013.

It was negotiated for China when it joined the WTO, and is meant as a temporary safety valve to ease China's integration into the world economy.

The requirements are less stringent than for general safeguards, e.g. significant trade diversion or increased imports that cause (or threaten) not "serious injury" but merely market disruption.