The Challenge of Safeguards in the WTO

Fernando Piérola is Senior Counsel at the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL) in Geneva, Switzerland, and lecturer in international trade law and dispute settlement at Universität Bern, Switzerland (World Trade Institute), Université de Lausanne, Switzerland and Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany (Europa-Institut). He also serves as arbitrator in international disputes under regional trade arrangements and is a regular commentator on international trade law issues.

Introduction; Part I. Foundation of the Safeguard Mechanism: 1. History of the safeguard mechanism; 2. The rationale of the safeguard mechanism; Part II. The Right to Apply a Safeguard: 3. Period of investigation and products at issue; 4. Unforeseen developments and the effect of GATT obligations; 5. Increase in imports; 6. Serious injury; 7. Causal link; Part III. Application of a Safeguard: 8. Scope of a safeguard; 9. Extent of a safeguard; 10. Form of a safeguard; 11. Temporal application and provisional safeguards; Part IV. Procedures for the Application of Safeguards: 12. Domestic investigation; 13. Multilateral proceedings; Concluding remarks.