WTO Disciplines on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures
Balancing Policy Space and Legal Constraints

A legal and normative analysis of WTO disciplines on industrial and agricultural subsidies and countervailing duties.

Dominic Coppens (Author)

9781107014770, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 May 2014

696 pages, 6 b/w illus.
23.7 x 16 x 4.5 cm, 1.09 kg

Does the WTO leave appropriate policy space to its Members to pursue legitimate objectives, such as the economic development of developing countries, the conversion to a greener economy, or recovery in times of a global economic downturn? This legal and normative analysis of the WTO rules on subsidies and countervailing measures sheds light on why governments resort to subsidization and, by tracing the historical origins of the SCM Agreement and the Agreement on Agriculture, on why they have been willing to gradually confine their policy space. This sets the stage for a systematic and comprehensive legal analysis of both agreements, which integrates the vast amount of case law and proposals tabled in the Doha round. A separate case study explores the complex rules on export credit support, and the book closes with an in-depth normative assessment of these WTO rules on subsidies and countervailing measures.

General introduction
1. Rationales for offering subsidies
Part I. Legal Disciplines on Subsidization and the Imposition of Countervailing Measures: 2. Historical overview
3. Scope of the SCM Agreement
4. Disciplines on subsidies
5. Remedies
6. Differential treatment
Part II. Case Study: WTO Disciplines on Export Credit Support: 7. Export credit support
8. Rationale for disciplining export credit support: historical context
9. Main elements of the OECD Arrangement
10. Disciplines on export credit support for non-agricultural products
11. Disciplines on export credit support for agricultural products
12. Export credit support in light of the GATS
13. Negotiations on export credit support disciplines in the Doha round
14. Conclusion: normative analysis of disciplines on export credit support
Part III. Normative Analysis of Disciplines on Subsidization and the Imposition of Countervailing Measures: 15. The scope of the SCM Agreement: specific subsidies
16. Disciplines on subsidization by developed countries
17. Disciplines on subsidization by developing countries
18. Disciplines on countervailing measures
19. Disciplines on subsidies in light of policy responses to the economic crisis
Overall conclusion.

Subject Areas: International economic & trade law [LBBM], Law [L], International economics [KCL]