Trade remedy provisions in regional trade agreements

This paper examines trade remedy provisions in regional trade agreements (RTAs). By trade remedies are meant anti-dumping, countervailing and emergency or safeguard measures. Anti-dumping and countervailing duties can be levied on exporters who engage in ‘unfair’ trading practices that cause material injury to domestic producers. These unfair trading practices can take the form of selling products below their ‘normal’ price or of benefiting from government-provided subsidies. Safeguard actions can be taken even if there is no unfair trade practice so long as imports have increased to an extent that serious injury has been suffered by domestic producers. No matter the difference in conditions under which they can be triggered, all these instruments represent internationally agreed means for a country to temporarily increase the level of trade protection received by its injured domestic industry.