Overview clause

The Select Committee has recommended the insertion in the Bill of an "overview clause" (which "is intended as a guide only") which provides that:

• safeguard measures and provisional safeguard duties imposed under this Bill are trade remedies; and
• trade remedies are remedies against certain imports that are causing injury to New Zealand industries; and
• New Zealand's other trade remedies are:
• anti-dumping duties under the Dumping and Countervailing Duties Act 1988 in relation to goods that are imported into New Zealand at less than their normal value in the exporting country;
• countervailing duties under the Dumping and Countervailing Duties Act 1988 in relation to goods imported into New Zealand that are subsidised by a foreign government;
• transitional safeguard measures (including provisional ones) under sections 15A to 15H of the Tariff Act 1988 in relation to imports from a country that is a party to certain free trade agreements with New Zealand (Part 1, inserting New Clause 3A into the Bill).
• Comment

The Select Committee recommended the inclusion of this clause " ... to explain that the safeguard measures provided in the bill represent just one of several trade remedies available, and to clarify the distinctions between them and guide potential users to the most appropriate form of remedy". [3]  

Provisional safeguard duty—termination or reduction

The Select Committee has recommended the limitation of the Minister’s discretion to terminate a provisional safeguard measure. To end such a provisional safeguard measure, the Minister must be no longer satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the conditions that justified imposing a provisional safeguard duty are met, and in order for the Minister to reduce a provisional safeguard duty, he or she must be satisfied that there are good reasons for doing so (Part 1, amending Clause 15).

Disallowance and publication in the Statutory Regulations series (SR)

The Select Committee has recommended that the following Ministerial orders, which the Bill as introduced provided were regulations and subject to disallowance by the House, be published in the Statutory Regulations (SR) series (i.e. that the Ministerial orders are regulations for the purposes of the Regulations (Disallowance) Act 1989):

• imposing a provisional safeguard duty (Part 1, Clause 13);
• imposing a safeguard measure (Part 1, Clause 18);
• extending a safeguard measure (Part 1, Clause 22).

The Select Committee has also recommended that the following Ministerial orders be treated as regulations and be subject to disallowance by the House (with consequential publication in the SR series) ((i.e. that the Ministerial orders are regulations for the purposes of the Regulations (Disallowance) Act 1989):

• exempting imported goods from certain countries from a provisional safeguard duty (Part 1, Clause 13);
• terminating or reducing a provisional safeguard duty (Part 1, Clause 15);
• exempting imported goods from certain countries from a safeguard measure (Part 1, Clause 18);
• exempting imported goods from certain countries from an extended safeguard measure (Part 1, Clause 22);
• terminating or reducing a safeguard duty (Part 1, Clause 25).

Types of safeguard measures

The Bill as introduced provides that a safeguard measure may consist of “any other action the Minister considers appropriate”.

The Select Committee has recommended that this power be removed (Part 1, amending Clause 17).

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