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Subsidies

84 posts

Benefit and Market in the AB Feed-In Tariff Report

I'm at the BIICL WTO conference, which has me thinking about a good discussion last year of the Appellate Body's ruling on "benefit" in the Canada - Feed-In Tariff case (see prior posts here and here). As I recall, there were two people on

Significant Developments in SCM Benchmarking Jurisprudence

Within the last two weeks, the Appellate Body has issued two important decisions interpreting the SCM Agreement: US-Carbon Steel (India) (DS436), and US-CVD (China) (DS437). In DS436, India raised numerous complex issues under SCM; in DS437, China mounted a systematic challenge to more than a dozen US CVD

A Braking Mechanism for Subsidies

Cato held a panel discussion yesterday on subsidies and subsidy discipline. A central theme explored was how the United States can exert global leadership in the field of subsidy control and enlightened self-restraint. I contributed a suggestion raising some potentially complex legal (maybe constitutional) issues that might benefit from

The Purpose of WTO Subsidies Rules

What is the goal of the subsidies rules in the WTO's SCM Agreement? In an article in the Melbourne Journal of International Law, I argue that the rules can be characterized as fighting "protectionism." Furthermore, I contend, the Appellate Body's interpretations of particular SCM

More on Responses to Foreign Subsidies

Yesterday brought news of an AC/CVD petition in the U.S. in relation to imports of Chinese solar panels. Here's the FT: A coalition of US solar panel manufacturers asked on Wednesday for retaliatory tariffs on imports of panels from China, the first such case filed in

“Do Subsidies Justify Retaliatory Protectionism?”

From economist Don Boudreaux: As an empirical matter ... the costs of subsidies are borne chieﬂy by citizens of the country whose government uses subsidies while the beneﬁt of subsidies is enjoyed overwhelmingly by that country’s trading partners. Still – because trade makes markets less and less national and more and

GATT Article XX, Environmental Measures, and the SCM Agreement

Can GATT Article XX be invoked to justify emissions trading schemes that violate the SCM Agreement? This is from Ingrid Jegou and Luca Rubini in an ICTSD issues paper: Four aspects should be noted regarding the SCM Agreement. First, as noted above, this instrument is directly connected to the GATT

Some WTO Members' Views on the AB's New Export Contingency Standard

From the June 1 DSB meeting, here are the views of Brazil, Canada and Australia -- three Members who have been involved in export subsidy cases -- on the Appellate Body's new export contingency standard, as set out in EC - Aircraft: Brazil 15. Turning to export subsidies, and in particular

Farm Subsidies, the U.S. Budget Deficit, and the Doha Round

Former Appellate Body Member Jim Bacchus makes the case for cutting farm subsidies: The federal budgetary squeeze on agricultural subsidies offers the President and Congress a beckoning opportunity to seize and shape a grand global bargain on international trade. We could trade new cuts in farm subsidies for new markets

Extinguishment of Subsidies: Three Members, Three Opinions

In case there was any doubt that the issue of whether subsidies can be "extinguished" through privatizations or other sales of a company, the three members of the Appellate Body Division in EC - Aircraft set out three separate opinions on the issue: 726. Although the Members of this