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TMI BlogSeeks to notify the India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Bilateral Safeguard Measures) Rules, 2017X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g to cause serious injury to the domestic industry and where delay in imposition of provisional bilateral safeguard measure would cause damage to the domestic industry which would be difficult to repair; (b) "Director General" means the Director General (Safeguard) appointed by the Central Government under sub-rule (1) of rule 3 of the Customs Tariff (Identification and Assessment of Safeguard Duty) Rules, 1997; (c) "domestic industry" means the producers,- (i) as a whole of the like or directly competitive good in India; or (ii) whose collective output of the like good or a directly competitive good in India constitutes a major proportion of the total production of the said good in India; (d) " good" means any merchandise, product, article or material; (e) "increased imports" means increase in imports from Japan whether in absolute terms or relative to domestic production; (f) "interested party" includes, - (i) any exporter or producer from Japan or importer of the good subjected to investigation for purposes of taking bilateral safeguard measure or a trade or business association, majority of the members of which are producers, exporters or importers of such a good, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a result of elimination or reduction of a customs duty under the Trade Agreement; (d) to recommend bilateral safeguard measure which if adopted would be adequate to prevent or remedy the serious injury; (e) to recommend the duration of the bilateral safeguard measure and where the period so recommended is more than a year, to recommend progressive liberalisation necessary to facilitate adjustment; (f) to review the need for continuation of a bilateral safeguard measure. 4. Initiation of investigation.- (1) Except as provided in sub-rule (4), the Director General shall, on receipt of a written application by or on behalf of the domestic producer of like good or directly competitive good, initiate an investigation to determine the existence of serious injury or threat of serious injury to the domestic industry, caused by increased imports of an originating good as a result of the elimination or reduction of customs duty under the Trade Agreement. (2) An application under sub-rule (1) shall be made in the form as may be specified by the Director General in this behalf and such application shall be supported by,- (a) evidence of - (i) increased imports of the originating good; ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... der the Trade Agreement, the Director General shall issue a public notice on initiation of investigation and the public notice shall, inter alia, contain adequate information on the following, namely:- (a) a precise description of the originating good subject to the investigation and its classification under the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975); (b) the period subject to the investigation; (c) the date of initiation of the investigation; (d) a summary statement of the facts on which the allegation of serious injury or threat of serious injury is based; (e) reason for initiation of the investigation; (f) the address to which representations by interested parties should be directed; and (g) the time-limits allowed to interested parties for providing their views through appropriate representation. (2) The Director General shall forward a copy of the public notice to - (a) the Central Government in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and other Ministries concerned, as he deems fit; (b) the concerned trade associations or known exporters of the originating good, the increased imports of which have been alleged to cause or threaten to cause serious ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lable to him and make such recommendations to the Central Government as he deems fit under such circumstances. 6. Confidential information.- (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rules (1), (3) and (7) of rule 5, sub-rule (2) of rule 8 and sub-rule (5) of rule 10, any information which is by nature confidential or which is provided on a confidential basis shall, upon cause being shown, be treated as such by the Director General and shall not be disclosed without specific authorisation of the party providing such information. (2) The Director General may require the parties providing information on confidential basis to furnish non-confidential summary thereof and if, in the opinion of the party providing such information, the same cannot be summarised, such party may submit to the Director General a statement of reasons why summarisation is not possible. (3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rule (2), if the Director General is satisfied that the request for confidentiality is not warranted or the supplier of the information is unwilling either to make the information public or to authorise its disclosure in a generalised or summary form, he may disregard such in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e bilateral safeguard measure is taken; or (ii) the Most Favoured Nation applied rate of customs duty on the originating good in effect on the day immediately preceding the date of entry into force of the Trade Agreement. (2) The bilateral safeguard measure under sub-rule (1) shall remain in force only for a period not exceeding two hundred days from the date on which it was imposed. 10. Final findings.- (1) The Director General shall, within eight months from the date of initiation of the investigation, or within an extended period not exceeding one year from the date of initiation of the investigation, as the Central Government may allow, determine whether,- (a) the increased imports of the originating good under investigation has caused or threatened to cause serious injury to the domestic industry; and (b) a causal link exists between the increased imports of the originating good due to the elimination or reduction of a customs duty under the Trade Agreement and serious injury or threat of serious injury. (2) The Director General shall also give his recommendation regarding bilateral safeguard measure which would be adequate to prevent or remedy the serious injury and to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ether provisional or final, the rate of customs duty for an originating good subject to the measure shall be the rate which would have been in effect but for the bilateral safeguard measure. 12. Date of commencement of bilateral safeguard measure.- (1) The bilateral safeguard measure applied under rule 9 and rule 11 shall take effect from the date of publication of the notification, in the Official Gazette, imposing such bilateral safeguard measure. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rule (1), where a provisional bilateral safeguard measure has been imposed and where the Director General has recorded a finding that increased imports have caused or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic industry, it shall be specified in the notification issued under rule 11 that such bilateral safeguard measure shall take effect from the date of imposition of the provisional bilateral safeguard measure. 13. Refund of duty.- If the bilateral safeguard measure taken after the conclusion of the investigation results in a rate of duty which is lower than the rate of duty resulting from a provisional bilateral safeguard measure already taken, the differential duty collected shall be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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