Statistics

2019 saw the second highest number of safeguard investigations initiated since the creation of the WTO in 1995.
It can be noted that the level of safeguards activity is higher than the chart below suggests. The peaks of activity 1999-2001 and 2019 are periods where a number of countries initiated safeguard investigations on multiple steel products. These investigations included multiple product groupings but are each only counted as one investigation.
On average, around 50% of safeguard investigations result in measures compared to AD (67%) and CVD (59%).

India has initiated the most safeguard investigations since the creation of the WTO.
The list of countries using safeguards is quite different to that of anti-dumping and countervailing duties. ADD and CVD tend to be used by the more developed, traditional users of trade remedies whereas safeguards are used more by developing countries.

Metals/steel accounts for around one quarter of safeguards investigations in the period 1995-2021. However, as noted above, the level of activity is somewhat higher to that suggested by the raw statistics due to the fact that countries have initiated single investigations on steel covering many different product groupings, both in recent years and around the turn of the century.
Chemicals is also significant, as with ADD and CVD, but accounting for a lower proportion of total cases (20%).
Agriculture/food products account for 20% of safeguard initiations, a sector that is not significant in ADD and CVD investigations..

Source: WTO