Brussels, 09/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Contrary to what has been observed in previous global economic slow-downs, the WTO has recorded a significant decline in the number of new anti-dumping investigations, from 2013 to 153 between 2008 and 2011, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy announced at the end of February. The number of new investigations on safeguard measures rose between 2008 and 2009, but has been declining since. The trends in countervailing measures are different as the number of investigations opened has been rising since 2005, and there are indications that this may continue over the coming months and years. That said, the absolute numbers of countervailing initiations are far below those of anti-dumping. The WTO notes that almost 100 of its 153 member states have put in place the required legal framework to conduct trade remedy investigations, and this number is growing. Of these 100 members, on average about half initiate one trade remedy investigation per year. (EH/transl.rt)