WTO Subsidy Notifications

Download: A new template for notifying subsidies to the WTO

Transparency is a foundation stone of the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) -- the first multilateral agreement to establish disciplines on its members’ use of subsidies. Under Article 25 of the ASCM, countries are obliged to submit notifications describing those subsidies that have an impact on global trade.

However, the WTO Secretariat has signalled that compliance with the ASCM's obligations to provide new and full notifications is too low, both in terms of the number of Members submitting notifications and the timeliness of those notifications.

The GSI’s proposed template for WTO subsidy notifications is designed to address some of the problems inherent in the notification format which contribute to poor compliance. For example, under the current format, it is not clear whether the absence of subsidies is because they do not exist, or because the WTO member has neglected to notify them. The GSI template, in contrast, requires explicit reporting of the absence of subsidies to specific sectors or products.

The GSI has also created a searchable database that compiles all of the existing WTO subsidy notifications, available here.