¹[18E. (1) If the Government, after conducting such enquiry as it deems fit, is satisfied that any article is being imported into Bangladesh in such increased quantities and under such conditions that such importation may cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic industry, it may, by notification in the official Gazette, impose a safeguard duty on that article:

Provided that the Government, may, by notification in the official Gazette, exempt any goods from the whole or any part of safeguard duty leviable thereon, subject to such conditions, limitations or restrictions as it thinks fit to impose.

(2) The Government may, pending the determination under sub-section (1) of the injury or threat thereof, impose a provisional safeguard duty on the basis of a preliminary determination in the prescribed manner that increased imports have caused or threatened to cause serious injury to a domestic industry:

Provided that where, on final determination, the Government is of the opinion that increased imports have not caused or threatened to cause serious injury to a domestic industry, it shall refund the duty so collected:

Provided further that the provisional safeguard duty shall not remain in force for more than two hundred days from the date on which it was imposed.

(3) The duty chargeable under this section shall be in addition to any other duty imposed under this Act or under any other law for the time being in force.

(4) The duty imposed under this section shall, unless revoked earlier, cease to have effect on the expiry of four years from the date of such imposition:

Provided that if the Government is of the opinion that the domestic industry has taken measures to adjust to such injury or threat thereof and it is necessary that the safeguard duty should continue to be imposed, it may extend the period of such imposition:

Provided further that in no case the safeguard duty shall continue to be imposed beyond a period of ten years from the date on which such duty was first imposed.

(5) The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, make rules for the purposes of this section, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, such rules may provide for the manner in which articles liable for safeguard duty may be identified and for the manner in which the causes of serious injury or causes of threat of serious injury in relation to such articles may be determined and for the assessment and collection of such safeguard duty.

(6) For the purposes of this section,-

(a) “domestic industry” means the producers-

(i) as a whole of the like article or a directly competitive article in Bangladesh; or

(ii) whose collective output of the like article or a directly competitive article in Bangladesh constitutes a major share of the total production of the said article in Bangladesh;

(b) “serious injury” means an injury causing significant overall impairment in the position of a domestic industry;

(c) “threat of serious injury” means a clear and imminent danger of serious injury.]