A Safeguard action may be applied to temporarily restrict imports of a product where said product is being imported into a country in such increased quantities that it causes, or threatens to cause, serious injury to the domestic industry that produces “like or directly competitive” products.

Where a Jamaican industry files an application for a safeguard measure, the Anti-dumping and Subsidies Commission must conduct a thorough investigation that complies with WTO procedural requirements, to determine if serious injury is found to have occurred or likely to occur and the existence of a causal link between increased imports of the product concerned and said injury.

Subsequent to the investigation, the Commission can impose either special import duties or quantitative restrictions on imports. In the case of quantitative restrictions, the Commission may only reduce imports of the goods in question to the average annual quantity calculated over the latest 3 years for which statistics are available.

In cases of extreme urgency, the Commission may impose protective measures provisionally for a period not exceeding 200 days while a proper investigation is conducted. Notwithstanding, the duration of safeguard measures must not exceed 4 years unless it can be clearly shown that there is a need to extend the measures for one further period, which in no case may exceed a further 4 years.

In Jamaica, the total duration of a definitive safeguard measure, including the period of application of any provisional safeguard measure, may apply for up to 10 years.