International trade law

Question 1 (20 points) The US joined the GATT in 1947 and has kept its tariff rates on leather shoes at 1% ever since. In 2015, however, a very powerful hurricane destroyed several leather shoe factories in the Southern United States. This caused prices to go up and supply to greatly decrease. As a result, consumers chose to purchase cheaper shoes from Vietnam, Thailand, Chile, and Mexico. The American shoes did not sell well, as they were only able to sell 50% of the shoes that were made. The American companies then decided to lower their prices by 75%, so that the remaining shoes would sell. Ultimately, the American companies were greatly hurt due to consumers purchasing more foreign shoes. They are almost bankrupt and want help from the US government. If the US imposed safeguard measures, would a WTO panel be likely to find that the US was acting in compliance with the Agreement on Safeguards and GATT? Paragraph BIUA Ev