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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

The Sustainable Development and the Issue of Subsidies in the Light of the Law of the World Trade Organization

Author : Anna Reiwer-Kaliszewska

Published in: Finance and Sustainability

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The sustainable development, understood as one in which the needs of the present generation should be met without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations, is one of the most important challenges of the modern world. Subsidies, especially those concerning regional aid, research and development or environment aid are one of the most important instruments of the sustainable development policy.
Some subsidies may be subject to countervailing measures (provisional countervailing duties, undertakings or countervailing duties). The Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement) of the World Trade Organization does not ban all subsidies outright, however it constitutes a compromise and discourages only the most distortive government subsidies. It is therefore important to indicate which subsidies are reprehensible and subject to countervailing measures, and whether the subsidies within sustainable development could be subject to countervailing measures and if the answer is positive in which circumstances.
The main aim of the contribution is to confirm or disprove the main hypothesis, that according to the existing SCM Agreement rules the subsidies regarding regional aid, research and development or environment no longer qualify for the “green” category of subjects, that is a category of subsidies which can under no circumstances be subject to any anti-subsidy action. This article also aims to present the issue of the subsidies within the sustainable development from the WTO law point of view.
Research method used is analysis of the law texts, especially the text of the SCM Agreement.

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Footnotes
1
According to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, sustainable development is one of the objectives of the European Union, OJ 2012 C 326.
 
2
World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Our Common Future. Oxford, Oxford University Press, p. 27.
 
3
United Nations A/RES/70/1 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015 A/70/L.1.
 
4
J.J. Heymans, S. Mackinson, U.R. Sumaila, A. Dyck, A. Little, The Impact of Subsidies on the Ecological Sustainability and Future Profits from the North Sea Fisheries, https://​doi.​org/​10.​1371/​journal.​pone.​0020239. There have also been an interesting series of articles criticizing the subsidies in The Guardian e.g. Are agricultural subsidies causing more harm than good? by J. Clay or Perverse government subsidies impede sustainable business, by R. Cowe, www.​theguardian.​com access on 30.04.2017.
 
5
The SCM Agreement is an annex to the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. Dz. Ust. 1995, Nr 98, poz. 483. Certain issues concerning agricultural subsidies are contained in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA Agreement), which is also an annex to the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. This article is limited to discussing the provisions contained in the SCM Agreement.
 
6
Korea-Measures Affecting Trade in Commercial Vessels, 2.03.2005, WT/DS273/R, par.7.50.
 
7
Unless other multilaterally agreed specific rules apply to the trade in the product or commodity in question.
 
8
Subsidies within civil aircraft sector are excluded from the provisions of art. 8 SCM Agreement and therefore are not within green subsidies category.
 
9
About those few examples, see: G.E. Luengo Hernandez de Madrid, Regulation of Subsidies and State Aids in WTO and EC Law, Kluwer Law International, 2007 and the literature given thereof.
 
Literature
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Metadata
Title
The Sustainable Development and the Issue of Subsidies in the Light of the Law of the World Trade Organization
Author
Anna Reiwer-Kaliszewska
Copyright Year
2018
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92228-7_17