Common use of Investigation Procedures and Transparency Requirements Clause in Contracts

Investigation Procedures and Transparency Requirements. 1. The importing Party may take a safeguard measure under this Section only following an investigation by its competent authorities and in accordance with Article 3 of the Safeguards Agreement; and to this end Article 3 of the Safeguards Agreement is incorporated into and made a part of this Agreement, mutatis mutandis. 2. In determining whether increased imports of an originating product of the other Party have caused serious injury or are threatening to cause serious injury to a domestic industry, the competent authority of the importing Party shall, based on objective evidence, evaluate the effect of the increased imports on the domestic industry by considering the following economic factors: the rate and amount of the increase in imports of the originating product, the share of the domestic market taken by the increased imports, changes in the level of sales, production, productivity, capacity utilization, profits and losses, and employment. The list is not exhaustive, nor can one or several of these factors necessarily give decisive guidance. 3. When factors other than increased imports of an originating product of the other Party resulting from the reduction or elimination of an import custom duty pursuant to this Agreement are simultaneously causing injury to the domestic industry, the injury caused by other factors shall not be attributed to the increased imports of the product from the other Party.