. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SG/N/6/VEN/2
10 March 2000
(00-0908)
Committee on Safeguards Original:  Spanish
NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE 12.1(a) OF THE AGREEMENT
ON SAFEGUARDS ON INITIATION OF AN INVESTIGATION
AND THE REASONS FOR IT
VENEZUELA
The following communication, dated 18 February 2000, has been received from the
Permanent Mission of Venezuela.
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Pursuant to Article 12.1(a) of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards, and taking into account the
model proposed by the Committee on Safeguards (G/SG/N/6, dated 7 February 1995), the Committee
is hereby informed that the competent Venezuelan authority has initiated the following safeguards
investigation:
1. Date of initiation of the investigation:  28 January 20001, by means of Decision
No. ST-S-AP001/00 by the Technical Secretariat of the Anti-Dumping and Subsidies
Commission.
2. Product subject to the investigation:  flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel, of
a width of 600 mm. or more, hot-rolled, not clad, plated or coated, identified under
tariff code 72.08 of the Harmonized System.
3. Reasons for initiation of the investigation:
(i) The investigation was initiated at the request of Siderúgica del Orinoco C.A
(SIDOR), a company representing the entire domestic industry producing
like or directly competitive goods in Venezuela.
(ii) The Technical Secretariat of the Anti-Dumping and Subsidies Commission
(CASS) initiated the investigation on the basis of evidence submitted by the
applicants in support of their application.  In this connection, the applicants
submitted figures relating to the increased volume of imports of hot-rolledsteel products over the three years preceding the application, supported by
official statistical data.  They also submitted evidence of the injury caused to
the applicant company by the imports complained of and to that end
provided information on the deterioration of their main economic variables,
such as production trends and patterns, profits, return on investment,utilization of installed capacity, sales, market share, cash flow, prices and
                                                     
1 The text of the Decision to open the investigation, No. ST-S-AP001/00 of 28 January 2000, will be
published shortly in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Venezuela.G/SG/N/6/VEN/2
Page 2
level of employment, indicating in each instance the causal link between
that deterioration and the increased imports.
(iii) With regard to the existence of critical circumstances, the applicants
submitted evidence to show that there was a considerable increase in theimports concerned during the last six months for which statistics are
available, both in absolute terms and relative to domestic output and
consumption.
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