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Subsidies

84 posts

State Tax Incentives on the Increase

I've complained before about the use of government tax breaks to lure investment. A new FT article indicates that such measures are on the increase among U.S. states (via Trade Diversion): Tennessee, for instance, has just disclosed that it agreed to give German carmaker Volkswagen $577m in

New Paper: "Currency Manipulation" and World Trade

Robert Staiger and Alan Sykes have a new Working Paper on "'Currency Manipulation' and World Trade." Here's the abstract: Central bank intervention in foreign exchange markets may, under some conditions, stimulate exports and retard imports. In the past few years, this issue has moved

Do Prizes Constitute Subsidies?

I meant to post on this a while back, but never did (I don't see any record of it anyway). Suddenly, I find myself with a good opportunity. Last year, in response to this NY Times article, there was some talk in the blogosphere about the merits of

Obama and McCain on Farm Subsidies

The U.S. Senate approved the farm bill today. The bill is now off to the President for an expected veto, but there appear to be enough Congressional votes to override the veto. What do the candidates think of it? Well, neither McCain nor Obama was there for today'

Aircraft Subsidy Wars

No, not Airbus versus Boeing. This time it's Missouri versus Quebec, fighting over an assembly plant for a Bombardier airplane: Bombardier's preferred site is Mirabel, near Montreal. In 2005, Ottawa offered $350 million in refundable assistance and seems to be sticking to this. Quebec promised a

Obama on Ethanol

With Obama's fairly good showing last night, I thought it worth looking at some of his trade positions again. Back in Iowa, he firmly supported ethanol subsidies. But will the ongoing food price crisis change his views? Maybe so, based on his recent statements in an appearance on

Biodiesel Tit-for-Tat

From the EU: In a move which could trigger a new transatlantic trade row, the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) said it was formally requsting the EU's executive Commission to hit U.S. imports with anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties due to unfair subsidies."Since 2007, as

Play Ball: MLB and the WTO

With the U.S. professional baseball season under way this week, I was happy to come across a reason for a blog post about baseball. A Time magazine article reports that Japan's professional baseball league is complaining about the trade impact of Major League Baseball (MLB), after MLB

The End of the A Contrario Argument?

This post concerns the so-called a contrario argument under the SCM Agreement Illustrative List. The issue is a bit technical, so some background may be in order. To give a brief overview, in the Brazil - Aircraft dispute, Brazil made the following argument in relation to the consideration of its

More on Video Game Subsidies

As mentioned a while back, UK video game makers are complaining about Canadian government subsidies designed to encourage producers to locate there: Following Eidos' decision to move its production services from London to Montreal, UK trade association Tiga has warned the government that it must create a fair competitive