Analysis of Trade Remedies Provisions of Some APEC Members’ FTAs

We analyze the trade remedies provisions of some APEC Members FTAs. First, we examine key trade remedies rules in the FTAs which US, China and Korea have with other APEC Members. In particular, we begin with the US FTAs which center on safeguard measures. The issues concerning the safeguard measures include conditions for their application, provisional safeguard measure, duration, notification, and exclusion of global safeguard measure. We discuss also the trade remedies provisions in China’s FTA and Korea’s FTAs. Then we compare the trade remedies provisions of the three countries’ FTAs. Next, we conduct a comparative analysis with a view to understanding the relationship between the trade remedies rules in APEC Members’ FTAs and the relevant WTO Agreements such as WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement. We figure out that a number of trade remedies provisions are WTO-plus. The WTO-plus provisions include lesser duty rule, public interest rule, and newly adopted or improved notification provision. Finally, we conclude with future issues. They include the application of ‘the particular market situation’ under Anti-Dumping Agreement, and the well-designed rules for a safeguard investigations, and certain trade remedies provisions of FTAs which some APEC Members concluded with non-APEC Members, for example, RCEP and CPTPP.