Emergency Safeguard Measures (ESM): Trade defence mechanisms in the sphere of goods trade under GATT/WTO that allow an importing country to temporarily suspend its commitments when imports are shown to be causing serious injury to domestic producers of like or directly competitive goods.

Enabling clause: The phrase is used to describe the ‘Decision on Differential and More Favourable Treatment, Reciprocity and Fuller Participation of Developing Countries’, adopted in 1979, in GATT. The clause allows developed countries to deviate from the requirements of MFN (Most Favoured Nation) in order to stimulate trade with developing countries. It is the legal basis for the General System of Preferences (GSP) and Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT or S&D).

Export credit: Payments made by governments to companies to underwrite their cost of doing business.

Export subsidies: Payments made by government to export firms to encourage them to buy the expensive domestic product and not the cheaper imported alternative. The amount of the subsidy is the difference in cost between the two products.