questions from the
United Kingdom regarding the paper by the african group entitled "A Case
for Rebalancing the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) –
Policy Space to Promote Industrialisation in Developing Countries"
The
following communication, dated and received on 7 December 2023, is
being circulated at the request of the delegation of the United Kingdom.
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The United Kingdom would like to thank the
African Group for its paper on rebalancing the ASCM (_G/SCM/W/589) and helpful discussion at the
SCM Committee during the October Rules Week. We noted divergent views among the
Membership regarding the possible positive and negative spillover effects of
the WTO Agreements on economic development. We, however, continue to be open to
working with Members to examine how the existing WTO frameworks can better
promote industrialisation and support sustainable development. With this in
mind, the United Kingdom asked the following questions during our intervention
at the recent SCM Committee to better understand the connection between the WTO
Agreements and the challenges highlighted by the African Group in its paper, as
well as detail on elements of the proposal. We have set these questions out in
writing below:
1. Could
the African Group please clarify whether it has considered how its proposals
under its ASCM fit in the context of its wider proposals put forward for other
WTO Agreements, and those proposed by the G90? In particular:
a._
How would its proposals to
revise the coverage of Article 27.2(a) of the ASCM interact with proposals put
forward by the LDC Group on LDC Graduation regarding Article 27.2(a)?b._
How would its proposals in
regarding Article 3.1b of the ASCM interact with its proposals on local content
for the TRIMS Agreement? We would note that paragraph 5.2 of the African
Group's TRIMS paper proposes a local content exemption to "address
specific objectives aligned with the climate response and the 'nationally
determined contributions' under the Paris Agreement" which would cover
ASCM Article 3.1(b), but a similar proposal has not been included in its
ASCM paper proposals.
2. The
paper proposes that the prohibition under ASCM Article 3.1(b) should not apply
to developing or LDC countries, provided that the use of domestic goods does
not exceed a threshold to be determined. Could the African Group provide
further detail on the percentage threshold that would be deemed necessary to
achieve objectives stated in its paper, how this threshold would be calculated,
and what mechanisms would be implemented to monitor compliance?
3. Could
the African Group, in regard to bullet 5 of paragraph 3.2 of the paper, provide
further detail on what it proposes on elements of Article 27, such as remedies,
to be considered by developing countries?
4. Could
the African Group explain which developing countries were targets of
antidumping and countervailing actions?
5. Could
the African Group provide specific examples of how the ASCM has presented
constraints in the ability of its Members to design subsidies towards
supporting industrialisation, economic diversification and sustainable
development, where existing flexibilities available to Members to support
economic objectives are deemed insufficient?
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