The Agreement on Safeguards (AoS) is a World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement that governs the use of safeguard measures — temporary import restrictions that a country can impose when a sudden surge in imports causes serious injury to its domestic industry. It is one of the key agreements under the Uruguay Round (1995) of WTO.
Safeguard measures are temporary restrictions such as:
They are different from anti-dumping and countervailing duties because safeguards are not about unfair trade, but about surges in fairly traded imports.
| Article | Provision |
|---|---|
| Art 2 | Conditions for imposing safeguards: must show a sudden import surge + injury |
| Art 3 | Requirement for public investigation and transparency |
| Art 4 | Definition of “serious injury” and its assessment |
| Art 5 | Measures must be applied only to the extent necessary |
| Art 7 | Timeframe: typically 4 years, extendable to 8 years (10 for developing countries) |
| Art 8 | Requires compensation or retaliation if safeguards hurt exporting nations |
| Art 11 | Prohibits “grey area measures” (like VERs – Voluntary Export Restraints) |
Example
In 2018, India imposed safeguard duties on solar panels imported from China and Malaysia, citing injury to domestic manufacturers — under the WTO Safeguards Agreement.
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