WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SG/Q1/ISR/1 
15 April 2009 
 (09-1786) 
Committee on Safeguards Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS UNDER 
ARTICLE 12.6 OF THE AGREEMENT 
 
Questions Posed by the UNITED STATES Regarding
 
the Notification of ISRAEL1 
 
  The following communication, dated 14 April 2009,  is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the United States.    
_______________ 
 
  The United States thanks Israel for its Notification of Laws and Regulations under 
Article 12.6 of the WTO Agreement on Safe guards, the fourth edition of Israel's Trade Levies Law 
(Amendment No. 4), 5768-2008  (hereinafter the Main Law ) and poses the following questions.   
 
Question 1 
 
 It is not clear from Title G:  Miscellaneous  Provisions, paragrap h 10, Commencement and 
Transition Provision, whether the Main Law  has been enacted and is curren tly in effect.  Could Israel 
please clarify whether the Main Law  has been implemented, and, if the Main Law  has been 
implemented, the date of implementation?    
Question 2 
 
 Several sections of the Main Law  discuss the existence of inju ry (serious injury) to the 
domestic industry including:  Title B:  Inquiry Pro ceedings, Application to Carry Out an Inquiry due 
to Increased Imports – 3C, paragraph (b)(2);  T itle C:  Commissioner's Findings, Conclusions and 
Recommendations, Conclusion of Inquiry and Submission of Findings, Conclusions and 
Recommendations – 3J, paragraph (a)(1);  and Title  C:  Commissioner's Findings, Conclusions and 
Recommendations, Determining the Existence of Serious Injury – 3K.  However, the Main Law  does 
not specify the criteria that will be applied in determ ining whether serious injury or threat of serious 
injury exists.  Could Israel please identify the criteri a that it will apply in determining whether serious 
injury or threat of serious injury exists?    
Question 3 
 
 The Main Law  is unclear as to who is entitled to be an interested party, the deadline date by 
which such a party must identify its interest, and th e rights an interested party has if it notifies its 
interest in a timely manner.  In the definitions section in Title A, section 3B, the term "interested party" appears to be defined broadly.  However, section 3E(b) of Title B appears to suggest that the 
complainant may have a role in determining who is  an interested party and is thus notified.  
                                                     
 
1 G/SG/N/1/ISR/2/Suppl.1.   G/SG/Q1/ISR/1 
Page 2  
 
  Section 3E(d) suggests that the term may be limite d to those persons who request a copy of the 
complaint and the Commissioner's decision to initiate  an inquiry within 7 business days of publication 
in newspapers of the decision to initiate an inquiry.    
• Please clarify who may participate as an "interested party", including whether the term is 
limited to persons identified as "interested parti es" by the complainant, or to those persons 
who request a copy of the complaint and Commissioner's decision to initiate within 7 days of publication of the notice;   
 
• Please indicate the date by which a person must indicate its interest, including whether a 
person who determines after the deadline that it ha s an interest may request that it be added to 
the list of interested parties, and also whether su ch requests are likely to be routinely granted;   
 
• Please indicate whether copies of the complaint and the Commissioner's decision to begin an 
inquiry will be made available to persons with an  interest when the request is made more than 
7 days after the notice is published in newspapers;   
 
• Please describe the rights that an "interested part y" has in an investigation, including whether 
an interested party has a right to receive (or is there an obligation to serve) any subsequent 
notices relating to the investigation, the right to  request a hearing, the right to review draft 
questionnaires, and the right to receive and/ or inspect non-confidential versions of 
submissions made by the complainant and other interested parties during the proceeding.   
 
Question 4 
 
 With regard to Title B:  Inquiry Proceedi ngs, Notification of the Commissioner of Initiating 
an Investigation – 3E, of the Main Law , can Israel please clarify whether the official date of initiation 
of the investigation will be the date of the Co mmissioner's decision, the date of publication in 
newspapers, the date of publication on the website of the Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor or the 
date that notification letters are sent to th e parties noted in paragraph 3E (b)?   
 
Question 5 
 
 Title B:  Inquiry Proceedings, Response Document – 3F, paragraph (a)(1) of the Main Law  
states "An interested party shall be entitled to submit to the Commissioner its response to the 
complaint, in writing, within 30 days from the da te on which it was presented with a copy of the 
complaint and of the Commissioner's decision to initiate an inquiry…".  The timeline by which the interested party shall submit its response is not en tirely clear since it appear s that the date on which 
the interested party was presented with a copy of the complaint and the date of the Commissioner's 
decision to initiate an inquiry could differ.  Accordingly,  
• Please clarify the timeline for submitting a response to the initiation of the investigation.   
 
• How is the date of receipt of the compla int by interested parties determined?   
 
• What provisions are included for non-confidentia l summaries of data and information to be 
made available to all parties?   
  G/SG/Q1/ISR/1 
 Page 3 
 
 
  Question 6 
 
 Regarding Title B:  Inquiry Proceedings, Response Document – 3F, paragraph (c) of the Main 
Law, can Israel please clarify under what circumstan ces the Commissioner may decide to shorten the 
periods for interested parties to submit comments/ responses per the previous paragraphs?  How will 
interested parties be notified of an y expedited deadline?  Furthermore,  will interested parties be able 
to challenge an expedited deadline?    
Question 7 
  Regarding Title B:  Inquiry Proceedings, Rights of an Interested Party and of a Competent 
Authority in an Exporting Country – 3G, paragraph (a) of the Main Law , does the Commissioner 
intend to make available to all interested parties comments that are submitted orally, thereby insuring 
that written summaries of these oral comments al so appear in the official case file?   
 
 This provision of the Main Law  seems to indicate that a hearing will be held for interested 
parties to provide oral comments.  May an inte rested party request such a hearing or will the 
Commissioner hold hearings at specific point(s) during the investigation?     With regard to section 3G, paragraph (b), w ill the Commissioner also ensure that suitable 
non-confidential summaries of confidential informa tion will be placed in the public case file and 
made available to all interested parties?   
 
Question 8 
 
 Title B:  Rights of an Interested Party and of a Competent Authority in an Exporting Country – 3G, paragraph (a) of the Main Law , refers to an "involved party", but does not define the 
term.  It is not clear whether the term refers to th e complainant, responding interests, or to some other 
combination of involved or interested persons.    
• Please explain the meaning of the term "involved party" and how it differs from the term 
"interested party".  Are the rights of an "involved party" different than those of an "interested party"?  If so, please explain.   
 Question 9 
 
 Title B:  Inquiry Proceedings, Prelimin ary Decision regarding Imposing Temporary 
Guarantee – 3H, paragraph (e) of the Main Law  notes that an appeal of the Commissioner's 
preliminary decision may be filed within 15 days from the date on which the appellant learned of the 
decision.    
• Please clarify how the Commissioner will determin e the date on which the appellant learned 
of the decision.   
 
• Will there be a deadline established after the prel iminary decision is made after which no such 
further appeals may be accepted?   
 
• Please describe any other deadlines and time constr aints that may apply to interested parties 
desiring to file an appeal of the preliminary decision?   G/SG/Q1/ISR/1 
Page 4  
 
  Question 10 
 
 Will interested parties have the opportunity to respond to the conc lusion of inquiry and 
submission of findings, conclusions and recommendati ons discussed in Title B:  Inquiry Proceedings, 
Conclusion of Inquiry and Submission of Findi ngs, Conclusions and Recommendations – 3J of the 
Main Law ?  If so, in what manner will interested parties be able to provide comment and what time 
considerations will be observed for comments that are submitted?    
Question 11 
  Title C:  Commissioner's Findings, Conclusi ons and Recommendations – 3J paragraph (a)(1) 
of the Main Law, refers to conclusions regarding increased  imports based on the "average amount of 
imported goods during the last three representative years…".    
• Please explain how Israel would decide which years constitute the "last three representative 
years". 
 
• Must these years be consecutive years, and must all three be recent years?   
 
Question 12 
 
 Title C:  Commissioner's Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations – 3J paragraph (a)(2)(a) of the Main Law  requires the Commissioner, in recommending a safeguard 
measure, to take into account, among other things, the need for the measure "for the benefit of the 
economy in its entirety…".    
• Please explain how this provision is consiste nt with Articles 5.1 and 7.1 of the WTO 
Agreement on Safeguards, which state that a member may apply a measure only to the extent necessary "to prevent or remedy serious in jury and to facilitate adjustment".   
 
Question 13 
 
 Title C:  Commissioner's Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations – 3J paragraph (a)(2)(b) of the Main Law  Section suggests that the Commissioner, whenever he 
recommends a safeguard measure in the form of  a quota, must recommend specific country by 
country allocations.    
• Must the Commissioner recommend a country by country allocation whenever he 
recommends a quota, or could he recommend a global quota?   
 
Question 14 
 
 Title E:  Type of Safeguard Measures, Applicab ility, Rate and Validity – 3O paragraph (b) of 
the Main Law appears to state that that Israel may a pply a safeguard measure only "to prevent the 
serious injury" as opposed to "prevent or remedy
 serious injury".   
 
• Please clarify whether the statute actually inte nds that a safeguard measure may be applied 
only to prevent  serious injury, rather than to preven t or remedy serious injury.  If so, please 
explain how this is consistent with Article  5.1 of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards.    G/SG/Q1/ISR/1 
 Page 5 
 
 
  Question 15 
 
 Regarding Title E:  Type of Safeguard Measures, Applicability, Rate and Validity – 
3O paragraph (c) of the Main Law  is unclear.  It suggests that a safeguard measure may be applied 
against a subset of the imported goods found to cause serious injury or the threat of serious injury to 
the domestic industry.  It also suggests that Isra el may apply the measure selectively against goods 
from certain countries as opposed to goods from all sources.    
• Please clarify the meaning of this paragraph and explain how it is consistent with the 
requirements of Article 2.2 of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards.   
 Question 16 
 
 Title E:  Type of Safeguard Measures, Appli cability, Rate and Validity – 3P paragraph (a) of 
the Main Law  states that a safeguard levy may be based  on the value of the imported good "at a fixed 
amount or according to a different calculation…".   
 
• Please explain what is meant by this term, a nd particularly what "different" methods of 
calculation might be considered or applied.  Pl ease explain how this provision is consistent 
with Articles 5.1 and 7.1 of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards, particularly if the method of 
calculation allows the measure to become more restrictive.  
 
Question 17 
 
 Title E:  Type of Safeguard Measures, Applicab ility, Rate and Validity – 3Q paragraph (a) of 
the Main Law  Section provides that any safeguard measure imposed by Israel in the form of an import 
quota must allow entry of a quantity of goods that is not less than the average quantity of imported 
goods "during the last three representative years preceding the date of imposing the quota ...".   
 
• Would the "last three representative years" fo r purposes of section 3Q(a) be the same as for 
the purpose of making a finding that imports are in increased quantities under section Title C – 3J paragraph (a)(1)?  If it is different, please clarify how the "last three representative years" preceding the date of imposition of the quota are determined.   
 Question 18 
 
 Regarding Title F:  Re-Examination and Va lidity Extension, Re-Examination – 3U of the 
Main Law , please confirm that re-examinations of safe guard measures will be used to maintain the 
scheduled liberalization of the measures or to incr ease the liberalization of the measures but not used 
to decrease the liberalization of the measures in accordance with Article 7.4 of the WTO Agreement 
on Safeguards.   
   
__________