Safeguard dilemmas: The need for practical special and differential treatment for developing countries

Abstract

Safeguards are among the most controversial of all trade remedies, due to the fact that they are contrary to the general principles of international fair trade as articulated in the various agreements governing the relationship between Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). To illustrate this point: the decision by Member states to implement safeguards has in the past, and still is, severely criticised by the standing Appellate Body, the highest dispute settlement arena of the WTO. Thus, developing countries, least developed countries (LDC), South Africa, and other Sub-Saharan African countries, are hard-pressed to deploy and consider safeguards as an option, even in bona fide instances where these remedies are consistent with underlying trade and legal theory, considered together with the WTO rules. While pressure groups often seek to exert influence on governments to invoke safeguard measures for political and economic reasons, governments are seldom prepared to do so in light of the controversy surrounding safeguards and the strict interpretation thereof under the WTO structures.