IMF, World Bank, WTO, OECD set up Joint Subsidy Platform

“Governments that decide to use subsidies to address market failures need to ensure that these measures are transparent, respect trade commitments, and do not undermine policy predictability.

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The Heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Bank, and World Trade Organisation (WTO) have announced the set up of a Joint Subsidy Platform (JSP).

This is contained in a statement by the IMF Press Centre, a copy of which was obtained by BRANDPOWER on Thursday.

The statement said the JSP platform at  www.subsidydata.org was to enhance transparency on the use of subsidies.

“The JSP is intended to facilitate access to information on the nature, size, and economic impact of subsidies, with a view to facilitating dialogue on their appropriate use and design.”

It said that following the launch of the Platform, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (WTO), Mathias Cormann (OECD), David Malpass (World Bank), and Kristalina Georgieva (IMF) issued the following joint statement:

“Since we launched the joint report on Subsidies, Trade, and International Cooperation in April 2022, the magnitude of costly subsidies has grown and so have tensions around their use.

“At the same time, a succession of international emergencies and the growing urgency of the climate crisis underscore that in some circumstances well-designed subsidies can have a legitimate, albeit often only temporary, role.

“Governments that decide to use subsidies to address market failures need to ensure that these measures are transparent, respect trade commitments, and do not undermine policy predictability.

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“They should not use subsidies to provide a competitive advantage to domestic industry and should seek to minimise the cost and distorting effects on trading partners.”

The executives said doing this effectively, however, would require building a more common understanding across governments on the appropriate uses and design of subsidies.

They said the JSP could help governments to develop such an understanding.

“The first step is to improve transparency, and that is the initial contribution of the Platform. This will be a sustained effort.

The executives said they intended to continue to develop and extend the Platform, deepen their analysis, identify critical shortcomings in data availability and support high-quality analysis by others.

“By leveraging and encouraging development and disclosure of more data and analysis, our hope is to promote stronger dialogue on subsidies among governments.

“This will be based on a more comprehensive set of subsidies data, leading to better policies and de-escalating trade tensions.”