- Trade topics
- Safeguards
- Trade defence
Safeguards in a nutshell
Safeguards are different from anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures, and careful assessment is required to decide which instrument is the most appropriate to deploy for a particular situation.
The objective of a safeguard measure is to give the EU industry concerned temporary breathing space to adapt to an increase in imports and the ensuing new competitive situation. A safeguard measure may be applied for a maximum of eight years.
Unlike anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures, safeguards do not aim to restore a level playing field against unfair trade, but to limit any increase in imports that harms the EU's domestic industry. As safeguards do not focus on whether trade is unfair, the conditions for imposing them are stricter, both in terms of injury severity and the level of support from EU Member States. There is no need to demonstrate the existence of dumping or subsidisation.
A safeguard investigation has to show that the increase in imports:
- is causing (or threatening to cause) serious injury to the EU's domestic industry (a higher level of injury than the material injury required for anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures), and;
- that safeguards are in the EU's interest.
An increase in imports can be established in absolute or relative terms (compared with consumption or domestic production).
The safeguard instrument allows for a broader product scope than anti-dumping or anti-subsidy instruments. An investigation needs to show that import volumes increase for the product scope as a whole and that EU producers making all the products under the scope are, as a whole, suffering serious injury or the threat of serious injury.
Another essential feature of safeguards is that in principle they apply to imports from all countries (this is called erga omnes).
EU trade policy and safeguards
The safeguard procedure is slightly different from anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures, and the decision to apply safeguards always has to be weighed very carefully. So far, safeguards have only been used sparingly by the EU.
Imports may also be subject to surveillance if the trend of imports of a product threatens to cause injury to EU producers.
Surveillance does not restrict imports – it is a system of automatic import licensing over a limited time – either retroactively or in advance.
As of 15 May 2020, the prior surveillance regime has been replaced by a monitoring system.
| Instrument | Practice | Application | Criteria | Timeline | Duration |
| Safeguards | Significant increase in imports | Imports from all origins | Increase in imports Serious injury EU interest Causal link Possible broader product scope | Provisional measures: imposed for 4-5 months Definitive measures: imposed for 9-11 months | Up to 4 years Can be extended to a maximum of 8 years |
More on Safeguards
- How to make a safeguard complaint
- What are safeguard investigations?
- What are safeguard measures?
- What monitoring is there of safeguard measures?
For more on the legal basis of trade defence measures, see Legal basis
EU resources
- EU Regulation 2015/478 – imports from WTO countries
- EU Regulation 2015/755 – imports from non-WTO countries