Page 510 - MANUAL OF SOP

Safeguard Investigations

the initiation purposes. This is subject to subsequent submission of duly audited/
certified accounts within the stipulated period as per the initiation notification.

21.19 Even though Annexure-III as applicable to anti-dumping investigations is
not specifically applicable to the safeguard investigations, broad costing principles
as contained therein may be followed like allocation of expenses and disallowance
of expenses. However, optimisation of capacities is generally not resorted to in
safeguard cases. A decision may need to be taken on a case-to-case basis.

21.20 The application should contain satisfactory and sufficient evidence regarding
increased imports, serious injury or threat of serious injury to the domestic industry
and a causal link between increased imports and serious injury or threat of serious
injury to the domestic industry.

21.21 The prescribed timelines require that initiation decision on the application
should be finalised within 90 days from the date of receipt of application.

21.22 It is necessary that accuracy and adequacy of the evidence provided in the
petition be verified before taking decision. The DI verification should preferably be
done before initiation so that all issues are resolved before initiation.

21.23 A time period of eight months has been prescribed under the Rules for
completion of safeguards investigations.

Period of Investigation
21.24 The Act and the Rules as well as the WTO Agreement on Safeguards
and Article XIX of the GATT neither define nor provide guidance regarding the
period of investigation. However, it is evident that the investigation period should
be adequately long and sufficiently recent in time. This will allow reasonable
conclusions to be drawn on the basis of various relevant factors such as domestic
market conditions, performance of DI etc., as to whether or not the increased
imports are indeed causing serious injury or threatening to cause serious injury
to the DI and therefore justify the need for imposition of Safeguard Duty. It may
be desirable that information should be sought for the most recent period of four
years and the details of the source of information must be sought along with copies
of the source document, wherever practicable as per the methodology explained in
earlier chapters.

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