RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SG/Q1/VEN/2
8 June 2000
(00-2250)
Committee on Safeguards Original:  Spanish
NOTIFICATION OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS UNDER
ARTICLE 12.6 OF THE AGREEMENT
Reply from the BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA1
to Question Posed by CANADA2
The following communication, dated 22 May 2000, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
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Question
In determining whether there is seriou s injury or a threat thereof, Venezuelan
legislation allows consideration of the impact on food security, in the case of agricultural
products (Chapter II, Article 4.2).  What is th e WTO justification for considering "the impact
on food security" in determining injury?
Reply
Article 4.2 of the Venezuelan safeguards law establishes the elements that the investigating
authority must take into account for the purposes of a determination of injury and of threat of injury.
To that end, the Article stipulates that the factor s that must be considered include prices, output,
profits, return on investment, utilization of installed capacity, inventories, sales, market share, cashflow, employment and productivity.  It also stipulates that, in the case of agricultural products, the
impact on food security must also be considered.  Basically, this concept will be considered when the
investigation relates to agricultural products that are essential for the basic diet of the national
population and whose production could risk disappearin g as a result of the increase in imports of
similar products, with an adverse effect on the standard of living of the rural population and its abilityto remain in the countryside.
Nevertheless, it is only after a joint analysis of all the variables mentioned in Article 4.2 and
having determined that they have deteriorated, that the authority could take into account the impact on
food security of the imports under investigation.
In this way, the said consideration would be consistent with the WTO Agreement on
Safeguards and will be taken into account as an additional element to be evaluated for essential
agricultural products, only when the growth of the imports has been verified and the requirements
regarding injury or threat of injury and the causal relationship established in the WTO Agreement onSafeguards have been fulfilled.
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1 G/SG/N/VEN/2
2 G/SG/Q1/VEN/1