The Department of Agriculture has updated the quantity-based trigger levels for products that may be subject to additional import duties under the safeguard provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture.

The WTO Agreement on Agriculture provides that additional import duties may be imposed on imports of products subject to tariffication as a result of the Uruguay Round, if certain conditions are met.

Additional duties can be charged if the price of an individual shipment of imported products falls below the average price for similar goods imported during the years 1986–88 by a specified percentage.

It also permits additional duties when the volume of imports of that product exceeds the sum of a base trigger level multiplied by the average of the last three years of available import data, and the change in yearly consumption in the most recent year for which data are available (provided that the final trigger level is not less than 105 percent of the three-year import average).

Section 405 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act requires that information regarding the price and quantity safeguards, including the quantity trigger levels, must be updated annually based upon import levels during the most recent 3 years.

The notice provides the trigger level, unit, and date period for a variety of import products including beef and mutton, chocolate crumb, mixes and doughs, sweetened cocoa powder, condiments and seasonings, infant formula, peanuts and peanut butter/paste, and various sugars, dairy and cotton products.

Real the full WTO Agricultural Quantity-Based Safeguard Trigger Levels notice here.

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