Safeguards

Safeguard provisions are a common feature of international trade agreements. The Protocol has its very own safeguard provision in the form of Protocol Article 16 and the same provision is replicated, more or less verbatim, in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) Article 773. In the context of the Protocol, safeguard provisions seem particularly problematic as they provide a legal mechanism through which the EU and the UK could impose trade barriers within the island of Ireland, thus defeating what is arguably the primary objective of the Protocol. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the main features and differences between these safeguards and those safeguards inspired by the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that are typically included in standard trade agreements.

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