Rebalancing the Trading Scale?: Recent Trends in the Implementation of Article 8 of the Safeguards Agreement

Abstract

The WTO safeguard measure takes the form of a suspension of an obligation under the GATT or the withdrawal or modifications of a GATT concession. When an importing Member imposes a safeguard measure, it shall endeavour to maintain a substantially equivalent level of concessions and may agree to compensate the exporting Member(s) affected by the safeguard measure. The SG Agreement also stipulates that if no agreement is reached within thirty days, the affected Member could suspend, under certain conditions, the application of substantially equivalent concessions or other obligations to the trade of the imposing Member. It has been rare that the exporting Member and the Member applying the safeguard agreed to a compensation. At the same time, until 2018, notifications of suspension of concessions to rebalance the level of concessions have also been rare. However, suspension of concessions sharply increased since 2018. This article offers some observations relating to this recent trend. WTO, Safeguards, GATT, compensation, suspension of concessions, rebalancing