US Policies and Practices on Subsidies in International Trade

Modern governments intervene in their economies in countless ways. This is true even of such countries as the United States, with its strong commitment to an economic system of ‘free enterprise.’ The concept is relative, for enterprise today is anything but free, if by that is meant free from government regulation or influence. A few of the US government’s actions, such as import tariffs, the cabotage rules on coastal shipping or the oil import quotas (now in abeyance), are aimed specifically at foreign trade in goods or services. Most actions are not, but they have an influence on international trade — via the competitiveness of the firms subject to regulation or influence, and through them indirectly to all firms — that varies from negligible to substantial.