WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
18 August 1999
(99-3476)
Committee on Safeguards Original:  English
NOTIFICATION OF LAWS, REGULATIONS AND ADMINISTRATIVE
PROCEDURES RELATING TO SAFEGUARD MEASURES
KYRGYZ REPUBLIC
The following communication, dated 12 August 1999, has been received from the
Kyrgyz Republic.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Chapter 1  Gene ral provisions.................................................................................................. ...........1
Chapter 2  The state control................................................................................................... .............3
Chapter 3  Inves tigation st art-up.............................................................................................. ...........4
Chapter 4  Holding of invest igation............................................................................................ ........5
Chapter 5  Completion of invest igatio n ......................................................................................... .....8
Chapter 6  Fina l provisions.................................................................................................... ...........10
The present Law shall establish the main notions and principles of the legislation on
safeguard measures, the order for investigation to ascertain the existence of serious injury as well as
the order for application on safeguard measures
CHAPTER 1.  GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1.  The area of application of the present Law
The present Law shall regulate the relations occurred:
- due to the imports of some goods to the customs territory of the Kyrgyz Republic for free
circulation in such quantities and under such conditions that can cause or threaten to
cause serious injury to the domestic producers of like or directly competitive products as
well as interests of the Kyrgyz Republic.
- between the foreign  suppliers of products and domestic producers or directly
competitive products as well as between Authorized Body and all interested parties.G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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Article 2.  Purposes and principles of implementation of the present Law
1. Safeguarding of interests of domestic producers and elimination of a serious injury or threat
of a serious injury in the relevant branch of the economy of the Kyrgyz Republic are regarded as the
purposes of the present Law.
2. Safeguard measures are applied by the Authorized Body only under the condition of cause of
a serious injury or its threat to domestic producers.
3. Safeguard measures may only be applied if the investigation procedure has been carried out
exactly in line with the present Law.
4. Safeguard measures are applied to a supplied product independent of a source of import.
5. Only the measures mentioned in the present Law may be applied as safeguard measures. The
following measures may not be applied as safeguard measures: actions on arbitrary restriction of
supplies, agreement on market regulation or other actions, regulation of sales, introduction of pricemonitoring and other similar measures.
Article 3.  Legislation of the Kyrgyz  Republic on safeguard measures.
1. The legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic on safeguard measures refers to the current Law, other
legislative acts and adopted relevant normative legal acts of the President and Government of the
Kyrgyz Republic as well as normative legal acts of the Authorized Body.
International agreements and treaties ratified by the Kyrgyz Republic shall refer to the
international legislation.
2. If an international treaty in which the Kyrgyz Republic is a party, establishes other rules
different from the ones included into the present Law, the provisions of the international treaty
supersede.
Article 4.  Terms and definitions
The following terms are used in the present Law:
“WTO”  - World Trade Organization;
“Injury”  - significant deterioration of the economic situation of either an industrial branch or
separate domestic producers;
“Temporary safeguard measures”  - a complex of administrative and financial remedies
applied by Customs bodies on the basis of the resolutions of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic
in the form of special customs duties for the goods imported to the customs territory of the KyrgyzRepublic for free circulation in such quantities and\or under such conditions that it can cause serious
injury or threat of injury to domestic industrial branches or domestic producers of relative or directly
competitive products;
“Interested parties”  - an exporter, foreign producer, an importer of a product which is the
subject of investigation or trade, industrial association where the majority of participants are
producers, exporters or importers of such product, the government of an exporting country, the
government of the Kyrgyz Republic, a producer of relative or directly competitive products in theG/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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Kyrgyz Republic or a trade and industrial association, an association for protection of consumers’
rights;
“Safeguard measures”  - a complex of administrative and financial measures applied by
Customs authorities on the basis of the resolution of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic in the
form of special customs duties and quotes to supplies of products imported to the customs territory of
the Kyrgyz Republic for free circulation in such quantities and under such conditions that it can cause
injury or threat of injury to domestic industrial branches or domestic producers of relative or directly
competitive products;
“Quota”  - quantitative restriction on supplies of a product defined by the Authorized Body
being introduced by Customs bodies pursuant to the resolution of the Government of the KyrgyzRepublic;
“Committee”  - Committee on WTO’s safeguard measures;
“Domestic producers”  – producers of the Kyrgyz Republic of relative or directly
competitive products acting in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic;
“Like products”  - identical or homogeneous products:
- “identical products”  - products identical in all respects;
- “homogeneous products”  - products not identical in all respects but having similar
characteristics and consisting of similar components;
“Supplier”  - producer, exporter or importer of products;
“Investigation”  - procedure of considering documents and other evidences in relation to
import of any product to the customs territory of the Kyrgyz Republic for free circulation in such
quantities and under such conditions that cause or threatening to cause serious injury to domesticproducers of relative or directly competitive products;
“Special duties”  - duties applied pursuant to the resolution of the Government of the Kyrgyz
Republic by Customs bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic in case of supplies of any products to the
customs territory of the Kyrgyz Republic for free circulation in such quantities and\or under suchconditions that it can cause serious injury or its threat to domestic industries or domestic producers of
relative or directly competitive products;
“Threat of injury”  - unavoidable deterioration of economical situation or branch of industry
or domestic producers in future;
“Authorized Body”  - state body of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic authorized to
carry out investigation either upon the application of interested parties or at its own initiative.
CHAPTER 2.  STATE CONTROL
Article 5.  Bodies of state control
1. General management on the state control for trade activity of Suppliers is carried out by the
Government of the Kyrgyz Republic pursuant to the Legislation on safeguard measures.
2. Direct activities on control and holding the investigation is carried out by the Authorized
Body determined by the Government or established by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic.G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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Article 6.  Authorized Body
1. The Authorized Body acts within the frameworks of authorities given to it by the present Law
and on the basis of the Provision approved by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.
2. In cases stipulated by the present Law, and other legislative acts of the Kyrgyz Republic, acts
of the President and Government of the Kyrgyz Re public, the Authorized Body publishes, within the
limits of its competence, normative legal acts, including acts on investigation procedures.
3. If necessary to introduce special duties or quotas the Authorized Body introduces draft
resolutions to the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.
4. While carrying out its functions the Authorized Body cooperates with official bodies of other
countries and international organizations.
CHAPTER 3.  INVESTIGATION START-UP
Article 7.  Submission of an application
1. An application for holding an investigation on facts which cause serious injury or threat of
serious injury in the course of importing a product is applied to the Authorized Body by domestic
producers of like or directly competitive products or on their behalf.
2. An application should contain the following data:
- name of the Applicant and data on cost an d production volume of relevant products;
- complete description of products, name of a c ountry or countries of its origin or export,
list of known Suppliers of the given product;
- evidences proving the existence, character or other terms of supplies of such product
known to the Applicant;
- data on rates and volumes of increasing supplies of the given product in absolute and
relative values, share of the given product at the internal market, changes in volumes of
sales, production, productivity, capacity utilization, amount of profits and losses, and
employment;
- influence of supplies of a given product on prices of relative or directly competitive
product at the internal market of the Kyrgyz Republic and possible consequences for
domestic producers confirmed by relevant evidences;
- list of all known domestic producers of relative or directly competitive products and
known data on cost and production volume of relative or directly competitive productswhich is the part of a share of the mentioned producers.
3. Any application can be called back before the start-up of the investigation procedure and in
this case, it is considered as non-submitted.
4. In case if there are sufficient evidences on existence of injury or threat of injury caused by
supplies of any products, the Authorized Body can make a decision to start the investigation without a
written application at its own initiative.
Article 8.  Consideration of an application
1. Within 30 days after the application has been submitted, the Authorized Body must consider
authenticity and sufficiency of data mentioned in the application and make a decision to hold the
investigation, or to refuse to hold the investigation.G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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2. If the Authorized Body considers the submitted information as incomplete and insufficient, it
should notify an Applicant about it within 30 days from the day of receiving the application. In case
an Applicant changes or introduces amendments to his application, the term of consideration of the
application is counted from the day of receipt of the amendments and changes.
3. After the decision on holding the investigation has been made the Authorized Body publishes
the notification in the official mass media edition and informs all the interested parties invited for
holding hearings.
4. The Authorized Body takes the decision to refuse the holding of the investigation in case
there are no sufficient evidences on supplies of products or there is no injury or its threat.
5. After the decision on refusal to hold the investigation is made the Authorized Body mustnotify an Applicant about it, mentioning the reasons for refusal.
Article 9.  Notification on investigation
1. An Authorized Body notifies the Committee on the following issues:
(a) beginning of investigation;
(b) establishment of the fact of serious injury or its threat;(c) introduction of temporary measures;
(d) making a decision on imposing and prolongation of the validity of safeguard
measures.
2. Notification on investigation must contain all the information related to the case which must
include evidences on serious injury or its threat in connection with the increased volumes of supplies,
accurate description of a product, proposed safeguard measure, date of introduction and its duration
and schedule of gradual decrease of its amount.
In case of notification on prolongation of the safeguard measure, the evidences on
improvement of economic situation in the production industry of relevant goods must be submitted.
3. Besides the cases mentioned in the present article, the Authorized Body notifies the
Committee on all laws, resolutions and administrative acts relevant to the safeguard measures as well
as about all the changes and supplements made to these normative-legal acts.
Article 10.  Review of an application.
After the beginning of the investigation the Authorized Body is obliged to submit the
complete text of an application to all interested  parties upon their request, however, the confidential
information should not be disclosed.
CHAPTER 4.  HOLDING OF INVESTIGATION
Article 11.  Terms of investigation
Six months are considered as the term of investigation. In exceptional cases it can be
prolonged for additional three months.G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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Article 12.  Request for information.
1. After the beginning of an investigation the Authorized Body sends requests to interested
parties.
Interested parties are provided with 20 days for the preparation of answers to the requests.
This term can be prolonged but not more than for 10 days. The request is considered as received in 5
days after it has been sent by mail or transferred to a representative of an interested party.
2. In the course of an investigation the Authorized Body may require additional information
from interested parties, having established the deadline by which it should be submitted.
3. Every interested party has the right to submit in written form any other evidences which it
considers as necessary.
Article 13.  Confidentiality
1. Information submitted as confidential to the Authorized Body in the course of an
investigation should be treated as such if sufficient grounds are given and in no case should be
published without the written permit from the party having presented it.
2. A party presenting confidential information should submit an explanatory note on this
information of non-confidential nature.
An explanatory note should contain the sufficient detailed information for understanding of
its sense, or it should explain the reasons why the submission of a detailed non-confidential
information is not possible.
3. If the Authorized Body considers that the request for confidentiality does not have any
grounds or if a person from whom this information comes, is unwilling to disclose it or he does not
give permit to disclose this information in summary, the Authorized Body may not consider such
information except in cases when it will be proven that the information is authentic.
4. A person responsible for disclosure of confidential information, bears the responsibility in
accordance with the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Article 14.  Procedure of holding the case
1. An Authorized Body holds the case in written form for every investigation within the
stipulated procedure. All the documents concerning the investigation should be kept in the case file.
2. Materials on a case are submitted to interested parties to review in the course of investigation
and revision of the case file, upon their request.
3. An Authorized Body publishes a report on each investigation. The report should include the
detailed analysis of the case with the indication of reasons which are the grounds for making
decisions. The report should be published after the investigation is completed.
Article 15.  Hearings
1. Interested parties have the right to apply to the Authorized Body for holding hearings on the
case with the purpose to review materials on the case and share views of an other party.G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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2. Hearings are held under the chairmanship of an  official person of the Authorized Body who
ensures confidentiality. Representatives of the Authorized Body, parties and other persons/entities, the
presence of which is necessary, should be present on hearings.
3. Interested parties have the right to require additional hearings. In case if their request has
grounds the Authorized Body can hold additional hearings.
4. In the course of hearings, a protocol should be recorded. Interested parties have the right to
submit additional information orally. Oral information submitted in accordance with requirements of
the present article is accepted for consideration after its written confirmation.
Article 16.  Ascertainment of serious injury
In the course of an investigation the Authorized Body applies the norms of international
agreements in order to ascertain and calculate the serious injury caused to domestic producers.
Determination of a serious injury should be based on the received data confirmed by objective facts,
besides this, the availability of causal relationship between the increased volumes of supplies and thecause of a serious injury or its threat must be proven.
In case when besides the increased volumes of supplies there exist factors causing serious
injury to domestic producers, the serious injury caused by these factors must not be related to the
increased volumes of supplies of mentioned product.
Article 17.  Preliminary affirmative determination
In case if the fact of injury or its threat of the increased supplies of a product will be proved
by evidences received in the course of invest igation the Authorized Body makes a preliminary
affirmative determination which is the ground for applying temporary safeguard measures.
Article 18.  Applying of temporary safeguard measures
1. Temporary safeguard measures are applied in the form of establishment of a special customs
duty for a product concerning which the investigation has been implemented.
2. Temporary safeguard measures are applied by Customs authorities pursuant to the resolution
of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic after the preliminary affirmative conclusion on existence
of injury or threat of injury is made.
3. Notification on application of temporary safeguard measures must be sent 20 days before
their application, to all interested parties and official representatives of their countries. During 10 days
after the notification persons/entities involved into the investigation have the right to submit written
comments relating to the grounds for application of temporary safeguard measures.
4. The amount of temporary safeguard measures should not exceed the preliminary established
total sum of supposed or caused serious injury but it can be less than this amount if this smaller sum is
sufficient for elimination of serious injury caused to domestic producers or economy of the Kyrgyz
Republic.
Article 19.  Publication of a decision on application of temporary  safeguard measures
Temporary safeguard measures come into force from the moment of the publication of a
decision of the government of the Kyrgyz Republ ic on application of temporary measures in the
official mass media. The publication should contain the following data:G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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- names of Suppliers and countries where the product is delivered from;
- detailed description of the product (sufficient for customs purposes);
- criteria of serious injury estimation;
- main grounds for applying temporary safeguard measures;- full description of the measure applied;
- other information necessary for understanding actual circumstances and legal aspects.
The publication should not contain confidential information.
Article 20.  Terms of validity of temporary  safeguard measures
1. The term of validity of temporary safeguard measures should not exceed 7 months.
2. The term of validity of temporary safeguard measures is included into the total term of
validity of safeguard measures in accordance with the article 29 of the present Law.
CHAPTER 5.  COMPLETION OF INVESTIGATION
Article 21. Completion of investigation
1. The Authorized Body should present main facts on the basis of which the decision will be
made to all interested parties not later than a month before the final decision is taken.
Interested parties are provided with 15 days for submitting their remarks on the mentioned
facts.
2. An Investigation held by the Authorized Body on determination a serious injury or its threat
from supplies of products is completed with taking the following decisions:
- termination of investigation without undertaking measures;
- applying of safeguard measures.
Article 22.  Grounds for termination of investigation without undertaking measures
An investigation will cease without undertaking measures in case it is revealed that there are
no sufficient evidences of a serious injury or  its threat from supplies of a product in relation to which
the investigation has been implemented.
Article 23.  Safeguard measures
1. Decision on applying safeguard measures is taken by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic
on the basis of the affirmative conclusion on the part of the Authorized Body after the completion of
investigation.
2. Safeguard measures are applied in the form of restriction on the volume of supplies of a
product - establishment of quota, or increase of Customs tariff by introduction of a special duty.
3. Information on the application of safeguard measures should be submitted by the Authorized
Body to the Committee.G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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Article 24.  Procedure of applying safeguard measures
1. Safeguard measures can not be repeatedly applied to products to which they were already
applied during the same period of time as they were previously applied on the condition that the
period after its termination lasts not less than for 2 years.
2. Safeguard measures can be applied again to a product if the initial term of validity is 6 months
or less under the following conditions:
(a) less than a year has passed since the date of introduction of safeguard measures;
(b) similar safeguard measure was not applied to one and the same product more than 2
times during 5 years directly presiding the date of introduction of safeguard measures.
3. Safeguard measures can not be applied against products from developing countries-members
of WTO if the share of their supplies in the total volume of supplies does not exceed 3 percent under
the condition that as a whole not more than 9 percent of all supplies of a product covered by the
investigation is accounted for by the developing countries-members of WTO whose individual shareof supplies is less than 3 percent.
4. On determination of threat of serious injury by the Authorized Body the safeguard measures
may be applied only from the date the affirmative determination on the presence of threat of injury is
made and the effective temporary safeguard measures must be accounted in calculation the amount ofsafeguard measures
Article 25.  Quotas
1. Quotas may be established by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on the basis of
agreement with interested Suppliers (countries-suppliers) and further distribution of shares of supplies
between them where:
(a) quotas established for separate Suppliers might not be less than average level of
supplies of this product for the last three years except for the cases when more
sufficient restriction is necessary to prevent or compensate consequences of serious
injury;
(b) quotas can be established also proportionally to shares of previous supplies.
2. Without the agreement with interested Suppliers (countries-suppliers), quotas may be
established by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic if consultations were held under promotion ofthe Committee and in compliance with the following requirements:
- a disproportional increase of volumes of supplies of one supplier in relation to the overall
increase of supplies;
- equally fair conditions for all Suppliers.
3. In case the Authorized Body determines a threat of injury to domestic producers, paragraph 2
of the present Article is not applicable.
Article 26.  Special duties
1. On the basis of an affirmative determination of the Authorized Body and decision of the
Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on imposition of special duties, Customs authorities levy them
on the whole amount of supplied product in relation to which the investigation was held.G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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2. Special duties are levied independent of customs duties, taxes and other payments.
Article 27.  Notification on completion of investigation and application of safeguard measures
A decision on applying safeguard measures comes into force from the date of publication the
decision of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on introduction of safeguard measures in the
official mass media edition. The publication should contain data in accordance with  Article 19 of the
present Law and also the reasons for accepting or rejecting the arguments or requirements of
Suppliers.
Article 28.  Determination of the amount of safeguard measures
1. Safeguard measures should be established in the amount sufficient for elimination of serious
injury from the supplies of products in relation to which the investigation has been implemented.
2. The level of safeguard measures can be increased in no way during the period of its
application.
3. The level of safeguard measures can be decreased pursuant to the plan approved by the
Government of the Kyrgyz Republic upon the request of the Authorized Body in the following cases:
(a) if a safeguard measure operates for more than one year with equal intervals during the
whole period of application;
(b) if a safeguard measure operates for more than 4 years after the termination of the half
term of its validity. In this case the Authorized Body can consider the issue on
abolishment of a safeguard measure or speed up the decrease of a safeguard measure.
Article 29.  Term of validity of safeguard measures
1. The term of validity of safeguard measures should not exceed 4 years from the date of its
introduction. Revision of the term of validity of safeguard measures is carried out by the Authorized
Body at its own initiative or on the basis of the application submitted by domestic producers or on
their behalf. The total term of validity of safeguard measures (including temporary safeguardmeasures) should not exceed 10 years.
2. In case the Authorized Body establishes that safeguard measures are necessary for to prevent
or eliminate serious injury, the term of validity of a safeguard measure can be prolonged under
observation of provisions of international agreements.
CHAPTER 6.  FINAL PROVISIONS
Article 30.  Compliance with obligations
In the event of application of safeguard measures or extension of the term of their validity, the
Authorized Body has to take into consideration international obligations in the area of trade accepted
by the Kyrgyz Republic and accept measures for keeping the level of tariff concessions between this
and other countries in there are some.
Article 31.  Elimination and change of measures.
1. An Authorized Body can, any time, at its own initiative or at the initiative of interested
parties, consider the necessity of continuation of safeguard measures or the possibility of their change.G/SG/N/1/KGZ/1
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2. In case if it is established that the applied measures are not justified they should be
eliminated, or their amount should be changed.
Article 32.  The order of enforcement of the Law
The present Law shall come into force from the moment of its signing.
President of the Kyrgyz Republic A. Akaev
Adopted by the Legislative Assembly
Of Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic 7 October 1998
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