What are safeguards?

Safeguard measures are a temporary exception to the principle of free trade. The WTO Safeguards Agreement provides that a WTO Member may restrict imports of a product temporarily (take “safeguard” actions) if its domestic industry is injured or threatened with serious injury caused by a surge in imports.

The measures are designed to face the unexpected increase in imports. Thus, these measures have a provisional effect that affords an opportunity to the domestic industry for restructuring to cope with changes, not to prevent such changes resulting from international competition.