1. Councilor Kwon Hyouk-woo at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea in Geneva has been elected as chair of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s Committee on Safeguards (term: one year) on March 26.

o Councilor Kwon will serve as chair of the Committee, which deals with safeguards-related issues raised by 164 WTO member countries for one year until April 2019.

2. The Committee on Safeguards is one of the eleven committees under the control of the Council for Trade in Goods.

o The Committee monitors and reports regularly to the Council on the implementation of the WTO Safeguards Agreement, including conditions for invoking safeguards, procedures following the invocation of safeguards, compensation to affected trading partners, and retaliatory measures. 

* Safeguards are temporary measures taken when a dramatic increase in imports of a particular product has caused or threatens to cause serious injury to the importing country’s domestic industry. Such measures include tariff increases, quantitative restrictions, and tariff quotas.

3. Councilor Kwon’s election as chair of the Committee, who monitors and encourages each member’s compliance with and implementation of the Safeguards Agreement, is expected to enhance the ROK’s status in the multilateral trade arena, as major countries are increasingly imposing more import restrictions amid the rise of protectionism across the world.

* unofficial translation