WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SG/N/1/LVA/1
12 March 1999
(99-1002)
Committee on Safeguards Original: English
NOTIFICATION OF LAWS, REGULATIONS AND
ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES RELATING
TO SAFEGUARD MEASURES
LATVIA
The following communication, dated 4 March 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Latvia.
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Law  on Safeguards
Section  I
General Provisions
Article 1 - Definitions
For the purposes of this Law, the following definitions shall apply:
1. Product  means any trading product covered by Harmonised Commodity Description and
Coding System adopted and approved under th e Law on International Convention on Harmonised
Commodity Description and Coding System;
2. Like or directly competitive products  mean products that have like characteristics and
component materials that enable them to perform the same functions and to be interchangeable.
3. Import  means movement of goods across the customs border of the Republic of Latvia when
released for free circulation.
4. Import quota  means restriction which limits the value or quantity of goods which can be
imported during a given period;
5. Domestic industry  means producers as a whole of the like or directly competitive products
within the territory of the Republic of Latvia or those whose collective output of the like or directly
competitive products constitutes a major proportion of the total domestic production of thoseproducts;
6. Serious injury  means significant overall impairment in the position of the domestic industry
because of imports;
7. Threat of serious injury  means serious injury that is clearly imminent;G/SG/N/1/LVA/1
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8. Confidential information  means information for restricted use dissemination of which may
prejudice the rights and interests of the person concerned;
9. WTO Committee on Safeguards - refers to the Committee on safeguards established under
Article 13 of the Agreement on Safeguards in Annex 1 A of the Agreement Establishing the WorldTrade Organisation.
Article 2 - Purpose of the Law
The purpose of the Law is to establish the procedure for applying safeguard measures if as a
result of investigation it is determined that a product is being imported in such increased quantities,
absolute or relative to domestic production, and under such conditions as to cause or threaten to causeserious injury to the domestic industry.
Article 3 - Responsible Authorities
The Cabinet of Ministers following the proposal of the Minister of Economy shall form the
State Commission of Safeguards (hereinafter - Commission) under supervision of Ministry of
Economy, and approve its statutes. The main purpose of the Commission is to determine necessity of
the application of safeguard measures and appropriate safeguard measure to a specific situation. The
Commission has the right to request and receive the information from other public administration
institutions as well as from domestic producers of the product under investigation.
Section II
Investigation Procedure
Article 4 - Initiation of the investigation
An investigation to determine whether increased imports of the product concerned have
caused or threatening to cause serious injury shal l be commenced at the initiative of the Commission
based on the documented information at its disposal or on the basis of a written petition (hereinafter-
petition) of the domestic producer, domestic producers or an association of producers or acting on
behalf of the domestic industry.
Article 5 - Content of petition
The petition shall include documented information on trends in imports and factors relevant to
the domestic industry’s performance (for example, changes in the level of sales or production;
exporters or producers have received prohibited assistance of state or international organisations whatprecludes, restricts or distorts competition) and approves the allegation that serious injury has been
caused to the domestic industry or a threat of serious injury is imminent, as the result of increased
imports of the product concerned.
Article 6 - Commencement of investigation
1. The Commission, not later than within 30 days after the receipt of a petition shall:
(i) decide whether there is sufficient evidence to justify the initiation of an investigation
and publish the decision to initiate an investigation in the gazette “LatvijasVestnesis”.G/SG/N/1/LVA/1
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(ii) all parties concerned (exporters, importers, local producers, association of local
producers or traders and competent authorities of the respective exporting country or
countries) shall be notified in written about the initiation of investigation;
(iii) if it is decided to reject a petition, the petitioner shall be informed about reasons of
such rejection in written within 30 days of the receipt of the petition.
2. The Commission shall immediately notify the WTO Committee on Safeguards of the decision
to initiate an investigation and the Association Counc il if the investigation relates to the Member State
of the European Community.
3. Investigation procedures shall be established in accordance with the Regulations of the
Cabinet of Ministers on the procedure of submitting and reviewing the petition, the mutual relations
of responsible institutions, procedure for applying  safeguard measures and other issues.
Article 7 - Termination of investigation
The proceeding shall be terminated if an investigation demonstrates that there is no serious
injury or threat of injury or that any such injury has not been caused by increased imports of the
products concerned.
Article 8 - Duration of investigation
The investigation shall be concluded within nine months from the date of receipt of the
petition. In exceptional cases the Commission may prolong the investigation for two months.
Article 9 - Information available during investigation
1. The Commission shall be entitled to request the necessary information from the producers of
products subject to investigation, from the State Statistics Department of Latvia and other government
institutions.
2. Any information that by nature is confidential or which is provided on a confidential basis
shall be used only for investigation purposes. Such information shall not be disclosed withoutpermission of the party submitting it.
3. Parties providing confidential information shall be requested to provide nonconfidential
summaries thereof. If parties indicate that such information cannot be summarised, the reasons why a
summary cannot be provided should be specified.
4. If the Commission finds that a request for confidentiality is not warranted and if the party
concerned is either unwilling to make the information public or to authorise its disclosure in
generalised or summary form, the Commission may disregard such information during determination
of serious injury or threat of serious injury unless it can be proved by referring to appropriate sourcesthat the information is correct.
Article 10 - Transparency of investigation
The investigation shall include reasonable public notice to all interested parties and public
hearings or other appropriate means in which importers, exporters and other interested parties could
present evidence and their views (including the op portunity to respond to the presentations of other
parties and to submit their views as to whether or not the application of a safeguard measure would be
in the public interest).G/SG/N/1/LVA/1
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Article 11 - Determination of serious injury or threats of serious injury
1. In order to determine whether increased imports of the respective product have caused or are
threatening to cause serious injury, the Commission shall evaluate and take into account all relevantfactors of objective and quantifiable nature having a bearing on the situation of that industry, in
particular:
(i) The rate and amount of the increase in imports of the respective product in absolute
and relative terms;
(ii) the share of the domestic market taken by increased imports of the respective product;(iii) influence upon the domestic industry taking into account the following economical
factors: changes in level of sales, production, productivity, capacity utilisation, profitsand losses and employment.
2. The determination of serious injury or threat of serious injury caused by the increased imports
of the respective product shall not be made if existence of the causal link between increased imports
of the respective product and serious injury or threat of serious injury may not be proved on the basis
of objective evidence during investigation. When factors other than increased imports are causing or
threatening to cause serious injury to the domestic industry at the same time, such injury shall not be
attributed to increased imports of the product concerned.
Section III
Safeguard Measures
Article 12 - Procedure of application of safeguard measures
1. The Commission shall prepare a report on the results of the investigation and indicate whether
the increased imports of the respective product are causing or threatening to cause serious injury tothe domestic industry. The Commission shall immediately notify the WTO about the report and
publish it in the gazette “Latvijas Vestnesis”.
.
2. If the Commission initiates application of safeguard measures, the Cabinet of Ministers shall
decide on responsible institution to prepare draft law on application of the appropriate safeguardmeasures. The Commission shall publish promptly a detailed report on the necessity of safeguard
measures setting forth its findings, reasoned conclusions and the public interest.
Article 13 - Principle of the application of safeguard measures
Safeguard measures shall be applied to import of the respective product irrespective of the
country of origin, excluding countries mentioned in the Article 23 of this Law.
Article 14 - Safeguard measures
1. Within the period of time and only to the extent necessary to prevent or remedy the serious
injury and to facilitate adjustment, the Saeima may determine the following Safeguard measures
(i) determining of an import quota;(ii) increase of customs duty (tariff).G/SG/N/1/LVA/1
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2. The Commission shall notify the WTO Committee on Safeguards about applying specific
safeguard measures and the Association Council if measures relate to Member State of the European
Community.
Article 15 - The application of provisional measure
In the event that the Commission makes decision of arisen critical circumstances
(circumstances where delay would cause damage to domestic industry which it would be difficult to
repair) and makes a preliminary determination that there is clear evidence that increasing import
volumes of the products concerned have caused, or are threatening to cause serious injury, the Saeima
may pass a decision on application of provisional measures without awaiting for the completion of theinvestigation procedure. The Commission shall notify the WTO Committee on Safeguards about the
application of provisional measure and the Association Council if the application of measures relates
to country Member of European Community.
Article 16 - Provisional measure
A provisional measure shall comprise an increase of the existing customs duty  (tariff).
Duration of application of a provisional measure may not exceed 200 days.
Article 17 - The application of other measures
Measures not mentioned in this Law with the effect of protection of internal market may be
applied only in cases when it does not contradict the international obligations of Latvia.
Article 18 - Refund of customs payments
If it is determined by investigation that the imports of products subject to investigation are not
causing or threatening to cause serious injury, the m oney collected as the result of the increase in the
customs duties shall be refunded immediately in accordance with the provisions of the Law.
Section IV
Duration of Safeguard Measures
Article 19 - Duration of Safeguard Measures
1. Duration of application of Safeguard measures can not normally exceed four years, unless as
the result of investigation the term of application is prolonged.
2. If after four years it is determined that the application of safeguard measures should be
prolonged, new investigation is required to repeatedly determine whether imports of the respective
product are causing or threatening to cause serious in jury to the domestic industry. In accordance with
the extension of the application of safeguard measures any new measure shall be no more restrictivethan the initial measure at the end of the initial period of application.
3. If the duration of the safeguard measures exceeds one year, the respective measures shall be
progressively liberalised at regular intervals during the period of application.G/SG/N/1/LVA/1
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Article 20 - Liberalisation or abolition of safeguard measures
If the Commission establishes that, in the particular case, the circumstances, which had
caused application of safeguard measures, have b een changed or have disappeared, the Saeima may
further liberalise or revoke the application of respective measures.
Article 21 - The total duration of safeguard measures
The total duration of application of Safeguard measures including any provisional measures
and extension of application term, may not exceed eight years.
Article 22 - Repeated application of safeguard measures
1. No safeguard measure shall be applied again to the imports of a product which has been
subject to such measure for a period of time equal to that previously applied, taking into account that
the period of non-application of any measures is at least two years.
2. Safeguard measures on duration of 180 days or less, may be applied repeatedly if at least
one year has passed since commencement of application of safeguard measures directed against the
import of the particular product and these measures have not been applied more than two times within
the period of five years as of the moment of commencement of application thereof.
Article 23 - The application of safeguard measures regarding developing countries
1. Safeguard measures shall not be applied against product originating in a developing country
Member of the World Trade organisation as long as its share of imports of the product concerned does
not exceed 3 per cent of imports into Latvia.
2. Safeguard measures may be applied to imports from developing countries with import shares
less than 3 per cent if they collectively account for more than 9 per cent of total imports in the
territory of Latvia.
3. If a safeguard measure is not imposed on imports from developing countries under this
provision, then the Commission shall immediately notify the WTO Committee on Safeguards
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