On 14 July 2026, South Africa notified the WTO's Committee on Safeguards regarding the initiation on 10 July 2026 of a safeguard investigation on certain cold-rolled products of iron and steel imported into the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
In the notification South Africa indicated, among other things, as follows:
"Interested parties must make themselves known and provide comments within a period of 20 days after the initiation of the investigation.
Any information which the interested parties may wish to submit in writing and any request for a hearing before the Commission that they may wish to put forward should be submitted within 20 days following the initiation of this investigation to the Directorate: Trade Remedies II, at the following address: The DTI Campus, 77 Meintjies Street, Sunnyside Pretoria, Block Uuzaji, Ground Floor, tel.: +27 12 394 3688, or directly to the investigating officers, Mr. Siphumelele E. Mkwanazi at email address: emkwanazi@itac.org.za or Mr. Neo Motshoane at email address: nmotshoane@itac.org.za.
If part of the information provided is of a confidential nature, the party concerned should give grounds to justify confidentiality and furnish public summaries of such information, which should be as detailed as possible. In instances where a public summary cannot be provided a sworn statement must be provided stating the reasons why the information cannot be summarized. This requirement is designed to secure transparency and due access by all the parties to the information relating to this investigation. If the summaries are not duly provided and in the absence of just cause, ITAC may disregard the information deemed to be confidential."
The notification is available in G/SG/N/6/ZAF/14.
What is a safeguard investigation?
A safeguard investigation seeks to determine whether increased imports of a product are causing, or are threatening to cause, serious injury to a domestic industry.
During a safeguard investigation, importers, exporters and other interested parties may present evidence and views and respond to the presentations of other parties.
A WTO member may take a safeguard action (i.e. restrict imports of a product temporarily) only if the increased imports of the product are found to be causing, or threatening to cause, serious injury.