. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SG/Q1/JAM/2 
23 March 2005 
 (05-1220) 
Committee on Safeguards Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS UNDER 
ARTICLE 12.6 OF THE AGREEMENT 
 
Replies to Questions Posed by the UNITED STATES
 
Regarding the Notification of JAMAICA1 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 21 March 2005, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Jamaica.  
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 The Delegation of Jamaica thanks the Delegati on of the United States  for its communication, 
dated 22 October 2004;  questions on its safegua rd legislation, regulations and procedures. 
 
Question 1 
 Section 2 of Jamaica's safeguard statute defines th e term "like or directly competitive" to mean a 
domestic product that is identical or similar to or directly competitive with an investigated product.  
Please explain whether Jamaica distinguishes betw een "like" domestic products and "directly 
competitive" domestic products, or would consider the domestic indus try to include all domestic 
producers of like and
 directly competitive products. 
 
Response to Question 1 
 
Jamaica has recognised a distinction between like and directly competitive products.  In Jamaica's 
view, like products are those which are similar (though not necessarily identical).  A directly 
competitive product is one that, though not sufficiently similar to be deemed "like", has such 
commonality of features in terms of product character istics and end use as to make it substitutable for 
the imported product.  In practice Jamaica has rega rd to clarifications on this matter arising from 
WTO jurisprudence.  As a conse quence, Jamaica considers that th e domestic industry would consist 
of producers of like OR directly competitive products, taking in to consideration the products of the 
domestic industry and the goods un der consideration.  The Commission may consider the domestic 
industry to be producers of like products, in wh ich case, the scope of the investigation and the 
domestic industry may be limited to like products.  The Commission may determine that the domestic 
industry should include producers of directly comp etitive products, whether like or not like the goods 
under consideration.  In this cas e, the domestic industry, for purposes of the investigation, might 
include producers of both like and directly competitive products. 
 
                                                      
1 G/SG/N/1/JAM/2, dated 22 March 2004. G/SG/Q1/JAM/2 
Page 2  
 
 Question 2 
 
Section 9(1) of the statute states that the investig ating authority will give written notice of its decision 
to conduct an investigation "to the interested part ies".  Will the parties that receive such notices 
constitute the universe of interested parties, or may other parties apply for and receive "interested 
party" status? 
 
Response to Question 2 
 
The Commission is mandated to send notices initially to  the persons and entities listed in Section 2(a) 
through (h) of the Safeguard Act.  Pursuant to S ection 2(i), there may be persons other than those 
explicitly listed, who have a sufficient interest in the outcome, who may receive interested party 
status.  In general, during the course of the inves tigation, the Commission adds additional interested 
parties as it is made aware of them.  Question 3  
Section 2(1) of Jamaica’s safeguards regulations identifies factors to be considered in making a 
determination, including prices of the investigat ed product, and lists pr ice undercutting, price 
suppression, and price depression.  Price is not one of the factors listed in the WTO Safeguards Agreement, such as in the list of factors in Article  4.2(a).  Please describe the kind of analysis that 
Jamaica would undertake in considering the price of imports and price undercutting, suppression, and 
depression in a safeguard investigation.  Please indi cate whether this analysis would differ from the 
analysis Jamaica would use in an antidumping or coun tervailing duty investigation, and, if so, how it 
would differ.  Response to Question 3  
Article 4.2(a), while not listing price explicitly, requires the Commission to evaluate all relevant 
factors  of an objective and quantifiable nature having a bearing on the situation of the domestic 
industry.  In this regard, Jamaica considers that price effects emanating from and in a situation of 
increased imports are relevant to a determination of injury.  The combined impact of price and volume 
may also be evident in other indicators such as sal es, market share, and profits, to name a few.  
Further, the increased volume of imports will exert an influence on the general level of prices in the 
industry.  The authority analyses the three types of price e ffects based on their prescribed definitions, having 
regard to issues of price comparability, timing and magn itude, using trend analysis .  This is similar to 
what is done for anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations .  The Commission calculates the 
price effects from data on domestic industry sales prices, costs, and the sales prices of importers, taking into account any other relevant information.  In addition, a Safeguard case, to the extent possi ble, the Commission examines the impact of the 
increased volume of imports on the general level of  prices in the industry and in particular, the 
domestic industry's price, by using econometric mode ls to determine the nature and significance of 
the effects, taking account of other factors that may also be affecting prices.  The Commission recognises the qualitative difference between safeguard  investigations and dumping or countervailing 
duty investigations, given that imports in a safeguard case are not deemed to be unfairly traded. 
 
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