At a meeting on 27 April, the WTO Committee on Safeguards reviewed safeguard actions covering 38 products, 12 of which were steel/metal products. These actions were noted by members since the committee’s last meeting in October 2025. Several members expressed their views on the actions of the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) regarding steel products. The EU investigation into grain-oriented electrical steel and the measures on ferro-alloying elements also generated interventions by several members. The outgoing chair thanked members for their participation in the committee.
Review of legislative notifications
The Committee reviewed notifications of new national safeguard legislation and regulations from Botswana. It also continued its review of legislative notifications from Liberia and the Solomon Islands.
Notifications of safeguard actions
The committee reviewed 19 members’ notifications of safeguard actions, with those taken by Indonesia (seven), Madagascar, the Philippines and Türkiye (four each) accounting for almost 50% of all the safeguard actions reviewed.
Among the actions that attracted the most interventions were: Egypt’s three investigations on iron and steel products, with four members raising concerns; the EU’s measure on certain ferro-alloying elements, with five members raising concerns; the EU’s investigation on grain-oriented electrical steel, with five members raising concerns; and the UK’s adjustment of tariff rate quotas (TRQs) applied under its measure on certain steel products, with six members making interventions.
US response to certain requests for consultations and proposed suspensions of concessions
Referring to various requests for consultations and proposals to suspend concessions or other obligations previously notified by members to the Committee on Safeguards, the United States of America (USA) explained that it did not consider the tariffs imposed by the USA president referenced in these notifications to be safeguard actions. According to the USA, these actions were maintained pursuant to the essential security exception in Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994. The USA considered that no basis existed, therefore, for these members to request consultations or propose suspending concessions under the Safeguards Agreement with respect to the USA measures.
India disagreed with the USA’s characterisation of its measures. It asserted that, given their characteristics, they fell within the scope of the Agreement on Safeguards. Brazil and the People’s Republic of China expressed concern about the broader implications of the USA measures for the multilateral trading system and global supply chains. Brazil and India said they would continue to monitor developments regarding these measures closely.
Online portal for safeguard notifications
The chair provided an update on the online portal for submitting safeguard notifications. Twenty-two (22) members have registered to receive access, doubling the number registered at the previous meeting. Members are increasingly relying on the portal to submit safeguard action notifications, with more than 20 submitted since the tool’s introduction.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Committee on Safeguards is scheduled for the week of 26 October 2026.
Background
Under the WTO rules, a member may temporarily apply measures to imports of a product (take “safeguard” actions) through higher tariffs or other measures if it determines, through an investigation, that increased imports of the product are causing or threatening to cause serious injury to its domestic industry. Unlike anti-dumping duties, safeguard measures cover imports from all sources. However, imports from developing country members with a small share of imports are exempted through special and differential treatment provisions.