European Community—Sugar : Cross-Subsidization and the World Trade Organization
An important recent World Trade Organization dispute settlement case for many developing countries concerned European Union exports of sugar. Brazil, Thailand, and Australia alleged that the exports have substantially exceeded permitted levels as e...
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/08/8193042/european-community--sugar-cross-subsidization-world-trade-organization http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7299 |
| Summary: | An important recent World Trade
Organization dispute settlement case for many developing
countries concerned European Union exports of sugar. Brazil,
Thailand, and Australia alleged that the exports have
substantially exceeded permitted levels as established by
European Union commitments in the WTO. This case had major
implications for both European Union sugar producers and
developing countries that benefited from preferential access
to the European Union market. It was also noteworthy in the
use of economic arguments by the WTO dispute settlement
panel, which held that the excess sugar exports were in part
a reflection of illegal de facto cross-subsidization-rents
from production that benefited from high support prices
being used to cover losses associated with exports of sugar
to the world market. Although in principle the economic
arguments of the panel could apply to many other policy
areas, in practice WTO provisions greatly limit the scope to
bring similar arguments for trade in products that are not
subject to explicit export subsidy reduction commitments of
the type that were made for sugar and other agricultural commodities. |
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