RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SG/M/33/Corr.1 
10 November 2008 
 
 (08-5438) 
Committee on Safeguards Original:   Spanish 
  
 
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING 
HELD ON 30 APRIL 2008 
 
Chairperson:  Mrs Jo McKeagg (New Zealand
) 
 
Corrigendum  
 
 
 The delegation of Nicaragua requests that paragraph 24 of document G/SG/M/33, dated 
16 September 2008, be replaced with the follo wing paragraph (changes in italics and bold): 
 
24. The representative of Nicaragua first focu sed on questions 4, 5, 7 and 8 from the 
United States.  She observed that many of the que stions pertained to hi erarchy between domestic 
legislation and the WTO Agreement on Safeguard s.  She confirmed that the WTO Safeguards 
Agreement was the substantive rule and that the Central American Regulations on Unfair Business 
Practices  were the procedural regulation or norm, and thus the Regulations were entirely compatible 
with the WTO Agreement.  Article 4 of the Central American Regulations stated that "all substantive 
aspects relating to the application of safeguard measures and procedural aspects not covered by these Regulations shall be determined by  the provisions of the instruments referred to in Article 2 of these 
Regulations".  And the "instrumen ts referred to in Article 2" were the Safeguards Agreement, 
Article XIX of GATT 1994, the Guatemala Protocol, and the Convention on the Central American 
Customs Tariff Regime and its Protocols .  Regarding question 2 from the United States, the 
representative of Nicaragua explained that the rela tionship between investigating authorities and the 
Cabinet for Economic Integration was establishe d under Article 35 of the Central American 
Regulations, which provided that "[t]he investiga ting authority shall transmit to SIECA a copy of 
resolutions for the application of provisional a nd definitive safeguard measures, where these involve 
increased duties ... ".  The procedures relating to tr ade measures or trade remedy proceedings were to 
be found in Chapter II of the Regulations.  Regardi ng question 3, she stated that in Nicaragua the 
investigating authority was the Directorate for th e Application of Treaties of the Ministry of 
Economic Growth and Trade and Industry.  SIECA's role was solely that of a secretariat, filing 
adopted resolutions relating to implementation of provisional or definitive measures and the 
convening of the Council of Ministers.  SIECA was an  intermediary between the States Parties and its 
Council of Ministers.  Regarding question 10, the names of the publications were El Nuevo  Diario  
and La Prensa .  Costa Rica had explained that no official journal of the Central American Integration 
System had yet been established.  Regarding questio n 11, the representative of Nicaragua stated that 
the Regulations could not be seen as something th at would replace the laws and regulations published 
by Nicaragua with respect to available  remedies.  With regard to the questions from Chile, she made a 
comment on question 2, following up on what Costa Ri ca had explained.  She explained that security 
was indeed a system used by customs.  Such security would provide an economic backing to 
guarantee payment when the investigation conclude d that a definitive safeguard measure would be 
imposed.  If that was not the case, the security woul d be promptly returned.  The representative of 
Nicaragua stated that the answers would be provided in writing as well.  
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