Protecting UK industries from increased imports: Mastering safeguard measures

We recently hosted a webinar which explored how the UK industry may protect itself from a surge in imports entering the UK. The webinar was hosted by Rian Geldenhuys who looks after the LexisNexis International Trade content. Two expert panelists, Arnoud Willems, partner in the International Commercial & Trade Practice Group at Baker McKenzie and Raheel Shahid, a solicitor with the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority provided key insights in obtaining protection from a surge in imports. Arnoud provided his insights gained from assisting industry to apply for protection from a surge in imports whilst Raheel Shahid shared insights into what the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority considers important when receiving applications for protection from a surge in imports.

You can watch the full webinar here or read on for the key learnings from the session.

Safeguards are not aimed at unfair imports

Unlike in dumping or subsidies, which are forms of unfair trade, safeguards do not seek to address any unfairly trade imported products. Instead, safeguards are a temporary safety value that allows the UK to stem the surge in imports. The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority does not investigate if the imports are unfairly trade, but merely seeks to establish if:

• there has been a sudden and significant increase in imports;
• which increase is due to unforeseen circumstances;
• and that the increase is significant enough to cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic producers of like or directly competitive products.

The safeguard measure will then also apply to all countries irrespective of the origin of the increase in imports.

Safeguard measures take various forms

Unlike in dumping and subsidy investigations, safeguard measures do not only take the form of an increase in tariffs. Safeguard measures may take the following forms:

• an increase in the applicable tariff rate (or customs duty) above the bound rate;
• a quota – which either limits the volume or value of imports; and
• a tariff-rate quota - which allows a certain volume of imports to enter at a specific tariff rate and any imports outside of that volume at a different (higher) tariff rate.

View international trade practice notes, precedents and news articles 

Protection may be of a long duration

Safeguard measures have a slightly shorter duration than anti-dumping duties and countervailing measures which are imposed for a duration of 5 years and which can be renewed indefinitely for additional 5 year periods. Safeguard measures are imposed for a duration of 4 years. The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority must also reduce the safeguard measure at regular intervals after the first year. For this reason, a tariff-rate quota is often preferred by industry as the protection may still be had by reducing the volume of import subject to the higher tariff. To most safeguard measures may be extended for a further 4-year period. As such safeguard measures may at most be imposed for a 8-year period and will be subject to reductions of the level of protection afforded to the domestic industry.

Applying for a safeguard measure should be easy

Applying for a safeguard measure should be easier for the domestic industry as well as the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority. Unlike anti-dumping duties and countervailing measures, the investigation does not involve the cumbersome investigative aspects relating to the unfairness of the trade (i.e. the amount of dumping by or amount of subsidy received by individual exporters). All that is required is that there is a trend of a significant surge in imports, which data is easily available from HMRC.

Want to hear more from the speakers? Watch the full webinar on demand here to catch up and hear the full discussion.

View international trade practice notes, precedents and news articles