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Subsidies

83 posts

The Aircraft Report: No Balancing of Producer Harm with Benefits to Consumers

I've talked before about whether the harms to domestic producers caused by foreign subsidies might be outweighed by benefits to domestic consumers. As I said there, even if they are, the distortions to production may mean the subsidies are nevertheless bad for the domestic and global economy. But

Book Review: Luca Rubini: The Definition of Subsidy and State Aid

I had been working on a book review of Luca Rubini's "The Definition of Subsidy and State Aid: WTO and EC Law in Comparative Perspective." Among other reasons for doing so, this seemed like a good way to prepare for the EC - Aircraft WTO panel

Government Support for Domestic Companies Building Nuclear Reactors Abroad

The Economist has a piece on competition in the market for building nuclear reactors, in which they discuss how state support for domestic competitors may be playing a role: ... the United Arab Emirates (UAE) completed a tender for four nuclear plants in December, Vietnam is planning a similar deal this

Subsidies and Clean Energy Competition

Sometimes there's a fine line between protectionism and promoting the domestic economy. From Bloomberg: The Obama administration today announced that 183 companies, including PPG Industries Inc. and Itron Inc., will get a total of $2.3 billion worth of tax credits for clean-energy manufacturing projects in 43 states.

Rum Subsidy Wars

From the WSJ Washington Wire blog: Captain Morgan rum is now produced in Puerto Rico for the British company Diageo PLC, and tax revenues on the rum are returned to the island as part of a law that comes up for renewal every year. Diageo struck a deal with the

Financial Contribution to One Entity, Benefit to Another

I can recall talking with a number of people about the issue of whether a subsidy may exist where the financial contribution goes to one entity, but the benefit is to another. It appears that this issue has come up in the DS379 dispute. Here's a question from

Trade Measures Against the Auto Bailout

They may be coming. From the FT: China is preparing to launch a trade investigation into whether US carmakers are being unfairly subsidised by the US government, according to people familiar with the matter....General Motors and Chrysler have received about $60bn in government bail-out funds, though Ford has received

A Contrario Update

For those of you familiar with the "a contrario" argument in relation to the SCM Agreement illustrative list, I thought this passage from the U.S. - Cotton Article 4.11 arbitration would be of interest: 4.161 Thirdly, we do not consider that there is any legitimate

Subsidies, CVD Complaints and the Auto Industry

A recent Economist article notes: Across the world governments have lavished their ailing car firms with subsidies. Although General Motors (supported with over $50 billion of taxpayers’ money) has shed some brands and factories in America, so far not a single carmaker of any size has disappeared. One of the

The L Prize and WTO Rules

A while back, we talked about whether prizes offered by the government could be challenged at the WTO as subsidies. This discussion was somewhat in the abstract. Now, though, we have an actual prize program to talk about: The "L Prize." The New York Times describes it as