(1) The suspension of the concessions granted under the provisions of the Trade Agreement or the bilateral safeguard measure applied under rule 11 shall be only to the extent and for such period of time as may be necessary to prevent or remedy serious injury and to facilitate adjustment.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rule (1), a bilateral safeguard measure applied under rule 11 shall not exceed a period of two years from the date of its imposition:

Provided that the Central Government may, on the receipt of recommendation of the Director General under sub-rule (1) of rule 17, extend the period of such imposition by a further period up to two years:

Provided further that the total duration of the bilateral safeguard measure, including such extensions, shall not exceed four years.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rule (1) and (2), the duration of bilateral safeguard measure on an originating good shall terminate at the end of the transition period for such originating good as specified in rule 14.

(4) No bilateral safeguard measure under these rules shall be applied again to the import of an originating good that has previously been subject to such bilateral safeguard measure for a period of one year from the date of expiry of the bilateral safeguard measure and the duration of such bilateral safeguard measure shall be less than the duration of the previous bilateral safeguard measure on the same good.