The International Institute for Sustainable Development's Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) was launched at the end of 2005, just prior to the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, China. Delegates to the WTO meeting had gathered from around the world to discuss a wide range of issues being negotiated as part of the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks, but topmost on their minds were subsidies. What to do about agricultural subsidies, and market access (tariff and non-tariff barriers), was, as always, the make-or-break issue. But also on the table were various proposals for sharply reducing subsidies to fisheries, and perhaps eventually developing new "disciplines" on subsidies affecting trade in services.
Yet despite the fact that subsidies have become a central issue on the international agenda, the available information on subsidies is both highly dispersed and highly technical. While many valuable contributions have been made over the years to the literature of subsidies, most have been in the form of scholarly articles or books written by and for economists or trade experts. These tended to be either monographs focused on the magnitude of subsidies or their effects, or popular diatribes aimed at ridiculing subsidies in particular countries.
For anybody approaching the subject anew, they would face a steep learning curve indeed. Subsidies are not difficult to understand, but because the terms and definitions used by individual policy communities differ, confusion is virtually guaranteed. What was needed, in short was a book that covered all the issues related to subsidies, yet was short enough and accessible enough to attain a wide readership. In producing this Subsidy Primer we are attempting to fulfill that need.
The structure of the book has been set out so that each topic is addressed on a single page. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy and balance, no doubt some readers - particularly economists and trade lawyers - may find that certain details or elaborations have been left out. Others may find that some of the statements are too sweeping. If so, we encourage reader feedback and will endeavor to take it into consideration in any future revisions of the book.
Portions of this booklet draw on earlier work by the author, particularly two papers prepared for the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Pacific Economic Co-operation Council (PECC), for the former's 50th anniversary conference and the latter's workshop on fish subsidies, both of which took place in 1998. These papers have been subsequently published in proceedings, but remain obscure.
