According to paragraph 93 of the Secretariat Report: "If a request is made for provisional safeguard measures, full and detailed information regarding the existence of critical circumstances and how a delay in applying the measures would cause damage difficult to repair needs to be considered. The Director General may record preliminary findings in such cases and issue a public notice. These preliminary findings are placed before the Central Government through the Board on Safeguards. Provisional measures may be imposed by the Central Government for up to 200 days."
10. What have been the main critical circumstances criteria for establishing provisional measures, and among these criteria has any kind of exemption been envisaged for the developing countries?
Reply: Under Rule 2 of Customs Tariff (Identification and Assessment of Safeguard Duty) Rules, 1997 (Safeguard Duty Rules), "critical circumstances" have been defined. The criteria of "critical circumstances" is considered on merits by the Investigating Authority after examining the evidence in this regard. Provision regarding exemption to developing countries as per Article 9.1 of Safeguard Agreement is contained in Section 8B of Customs Tariff Act, 1975.
