COMMUNICATION
FROM THE UNITED STATES IN RESPONSE TO INDIA'S
NOTIFICATION PROPOSING TO SUSPEND CONCESSIONS UNDER
ARTICLE 8.2 OF THE AGREEMENT ON SAFEGUARDS
United
States
The following communication, dated and received on 5 November 2025,
is being circulated at the request of the delegation of the United States.
_______________
The
United States has received India's notification*, dated 30 October
2025, under Article 12.5 of the Agreement on
Safeguards regarding its proposed suspension of concessions or other
obligations under Article 8.2, with respect to the tariffs imposed on imports
of copper products pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
The
United States notes that the premise for India's proposed suspension of
concessions or other obligations under Article 8.2 is that the tariffs are
safeguard measures for purposes of that Agreement. The President imposed the
tariffs on copper products pursuant to Section 232, under which the President
determined that tariffs are necessary to adjust imports of these articles that
threaten to impair the national security of the United States. Section 232 is a
national security statute, and the United States is maintaining these actions
pursuant to the essential security exception in Article XXI of the GATT 1994.
The
United States did not take action pursuant to Section 201 of the Trade Act of
1974, which is the law under which the United States imposes safeguard
measures.[1]
The United States is not maintaining these actions pursuant to the safeguards /
emergency action provision in Article XIX of the GATT 1994 and the Agreement on Safeguards. These actions
are, therefore, not safeguard measures. Accordingly, there is no basis for
India's proposal to suspend concessions or other obligations under Article 8.2
of the Agreement on Safeguards
with respect to these measures.
Article
8.2 of the Agreement on Safeguards states,
in relevant part, that an exporting Member shall be free to suspend, upon the
expiration of 30 days from the day on which written notice of suspension of
concessions is received by the Council for Trade in Goods, "the
application of substantially equivalent concessions or other obligations under
GATT 1994, to the trade of the Member applying the safeguard measure."
However, the United States is not "applying [a] safeguard measure." Thus,
by its terms, Article 8.2 cannot accommodate India's proposal.
__________
* _G/L/1600
– _G/SG/N/12/IND/7.
[1] See _G/SG/N/1/USA/1
(6 April 1995) and _G/SG/N/1/USA/1/Suppl.1
(20 July 2015).