(1) The Director General shall, within 8 months from the date of initiation of the investigation or within such extended period as the Central Government may allow, determine whether, -

(a) the increased imports of the article under investigation has caused or threatened to cause serious injury to the domestic industry, and

(b) a causal link exists between the increased imports and serious injury or threat of serious injury.

(2) (a) The Director General shall also give recommendations regarding the extent of measure which, if levied, would be adequate to prevent or remedy serious injury and to facilitate adjustment;

(b) the level of tariff rate quota, if imposed as a measure, may be determined having regard to the following conditions, namely:-

(i) maintaining traditional trade flow of the article over the representative period;

(ii) the existing and likely demand supply scenario in the country; and

(iii) any other condition that may be considered relevant:

Provided that the tariff rate quota applied shall not reduce the quantity of imports below the level of the recent period, which shall be the average of imports in the last three years for which statistics are available, unless a different level is deemed necessary to prevent or remedy serious injury;

(c) tariff rate quota may be global or country specific;

(d) specific tariff rate quota may be allocated to countries with substantial interest, considering the proportion of the share of imports of the article concerned into the country during a representative period, and having regard to all relevant factors which may have or are likely to affect the trade in the article;

(e) in a case where the tariff rate quota is country specific, a residual tariff rate quota shall be provided for all other countries and in case the countries with specific tariff rate quota exhaust their specific tariff rate quotas, such countries may use the residual tariff rate quota available;

(f) any unused tariff rate quota may be carried forward and added to the tariff rate quota for the subsequent period.

(3) The Director General shall also make his recommendations regarding the duration of levy of measure:

Provided that where the period recommended is more than one year, the Director General shall also recommend progressive liberalisation adequate to facilitate adjustment.

(4) The final findings if affirmative, shall contain all information on the matter of facts and law and reasons which have led to the conclusion.

(5) The Director General shall issue a public notice recording his final findings.

(6) The Director General shall send a copy of the public notice regarding his final findings to the Central Government in the Ministry of Commerce and in the Ministry of Finance.