Jurisdiction(s):
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Assessing serious injury and threat in WTO safeguard investigations: defining the domestic industry, evaluating mandatory factors, trends and causation

Published by a LexisNexis International Trade expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note offers practical guidance on assessing serious injury in safeguard investigations.

Introduction

Under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Safeguards, a Member State may impose safeguard measures only where:

imports have increased
as a result of unforeseen circumstances
in conditions that cause or threaten to cause serious injury, and
to domestic producers of like or directly competitive products

All four criteria must be satisfied before an investigating authority can recommend the imposition of safeguard measures. For guidance on these requirements and the Agreement on Safeguards, see Practice Note: An introduction to the Agreement on Safeguards. For advice on the application procedure, see Practice Note: How to apply for a safeguard investigation. The most difficult element to demonstrate is often whether the increased imports are causing, or threatening to cause, serious injury to the domestic industry.

What constitutes serious injury?

The Agreement on Safeguards defines serious injury as a significant overall impairment in the position of a domestic industry. The Appellate Body has stated that serious injury represents a ‘very high standard of injury’. Moreover, the requirement that the injury be serious underscores the extent and degree of significance...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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