Notification requirements

This section of the Handbook on Notification Requirements covers the notification obligations under the AGREEMENT ON SUBSIDIES AND COUNTERVAILING MEASURES. It consists of the following five parts:

PART 1 | OVERVIEW OF NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
PART 2 | LISTING OF THE NOTIFICATION OBLIGATIONS
PART 3 | RELEVANT DOCUMENT(S) CONCERNING GUIDELINES AND FORMATS
PART 4 | LIST OF NOTIFICATIONS SINCE 1995
PART 5 | TEXT OF THE AGREEMENT

For Members which acceded pursuant to Article XII of the Marrakesh Agreement, their respective Protocols of Accession may contain notification obligations in addition to those set out in the WTO Agreements, and may govern the deadlines for the submission of their initial notifications.

PART 1 | OVERVIEW OF NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

INTRODUCTION

The notification requirements of the SCM Agreement can be divided into regular notification requirements, which apply in principle to all Members, and special notification requirements, which apply to Members invoking particular provisions.

With respect to regular notification requirements, Part VII of the SCM Agreement ("Notification and Surveillance") contains requirements regarding the notification of subsidies (Article 25.1), countervailing measures (Article 25.11) and competent authorities that conduct countervailing duty investigations (Article 25.12). In addition, Article 32.6 in Part XI of the SCM Agreement ("Final Provisions") requires notification of laws and regulations relevant to the SCM Agreement.

The SCM Agreement contains special notification requirements regarding certain aspects of the provisions of Article 27 on Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Country Members. Special notification requirements also applied under provisions, which are no longer applicable, on non-actionable subsidy programmes (Article 8) and on transitional arrangements regarding existing programmes (Article 28) and transformation into a market economy (Article 29).

WHAT MUST BE NOTIFIED?

REGULAR NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Notification of subsidies

Article 25.2 of the Agreement provides that "Members shall notify any subsidy as defined in paragraph 1 of Article 1, which is specific within the meaning of Article 2, granted or maintained within their territories".¹

Article 25.3 of the SCM Agreement contains certain requirements regarding the content of subsidy notifications. Thus, "the content of notifications should be sufficiently specific to enable other Members to evaluate the trade effects and to understand the operation of notified subsidy programmes", and Members are obligated to ensure that their subsidy notifications contain information on the form, amount, policy objectives and/or purpose and duration of the subsidy and statistical data permitting an assessment of the trade effects of the subsidy.

Notification of Countervailing Measures

Article 25.11 of the SCM Agreement requires Members to notify, without delay, all preliminary or final actions taken with respect to countervailing duties.

There is a significant number of Members that do not have a competent authority to conduct countervailing duty investigations and which therefore have not imposed any countervailing measures and are unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future. Those Members inform the Committee accordingly through one-time notifications which are circulated in the G/SCM/N/202/... series.

Notification of Competent Authorities

Article 25.12 of the SCM Agreement stipulates that Members shall notify to the Committee which of their authorities are competent to conduct countervailing duty investigations in their territories and the domestic procedures that govern the initiation and conduct of such investigations.

Notification of Countervailing Duty Legislation

Article 32.6 of the SCM Agreement provides that Members shall notify to the Committee the changes in their laws and regulations relevant to the Agreement and in the administration of such laws and regulations. Any such modification to the laws, regulations or administrative procedures must be notified promptly.

SPECIAL NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Notification of Non-Actionable Subsidies under Article 8.3

Article 8.3 of the SCM Agreement required the notification of non-actionable subsidies. Article 8 is no longer applicable.

Notifications Related to the Provisions of Article 27 Regarding Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Country Members

Article 27 of the Agreement contains a series of special and differential treatment provisions for developing Members. Among these provisions is Article 27.2(b), which established an eight-year period from the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement for the phase out of export subsidies by those developing Members not covered by Annex VII of the Agreement. Article 27.4 establishes a mechanism pursuant to which this phase-out period can be extended under certain conditions. On 27 July 2007, the General Council adopted procedures² regarding the continuation of previously-granted Article 27.4 extensions for certain subsidy programmes.³

Under Article 27.6, export competitiveness may be determined either on the basis of a notification by the developing Member at issue, or on the basis of a computation by the Secretariat conducted at the request of any Member.

Notifications under the Transitional Arrangements Set Out in Article 28.1(a)

Article 28.1(a) of the SCM Agreement requires the notification of subsidy programmes in existence before the date a Member signed the WTO Agreement, and which were inconsistent with the SCM Agreement. This provision is no longer applicable.

Notifications under the Transitional Arrangements Set Out in Article 29.3

Article 29.3 of the SCM Agreement requires the notification of certain subsidies granted by Members which were in a process of transformation from a centrally-planned economy into a market economy. This provision is no longer applicable.

WHICH MEMBERS MUST NOTIFY?

All WTO Members.

WHEN TO NOTIFY?

REGULAR NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Notification of subsidies

Article 25.1 of the SCM Agreement provides that, without prejudice to the provisions of Article XVI:1 of the GATT 1994⁴, Members shall make their subsidy notifications not later than 30 June of each year. Pursuant to an understanding reached in the SCM Committee, however, Members should submit new and full notifications by 30 June of every second year (the odd-numbered years) and spend the intervening year reviewing other Members' notifications.

Notification of Countervailing Measures

Article 25.11 of the SCM Agreement stipulates that Members shall submit, on a semi- annual basis, reports on any countervailing duty actions taken within the preceding six months.

For Members that do not have a competent authority to conduct and in order to relieve them from the obligation to submit semi-annual reports of countervailing actions, the Committee adopted a one-time notification format.⁵ A Member submitting this type of notification will not be expected to submit semi-annual reports of countervailing actions until such time as it sets up a competent authority and starts conducting investigations.

Notification of Countervailing Duty Legislation

Any modification to the laws, regulations or administrative procedures relevant to the Agreement and in the administration of such laws and regulations must be notified promptly.

SPECIAL NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Notifications Related to the Provisions of Article 27 Regarding Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Country Members

Article 27 of the Agreement contains a series of special and differential treatment provisions for developing Members. These procedures require annual updating notifications in respect of the programmes benefitting from extensions.

Article 27.5 of the SCM Agreement provides that a developing Member which reaches export competitiveness in a given product has to phase out its export subsidies for that product within two years. For Members in Annex VII who reach export competitiveness, this period is eight years.

Article 27.13 of the SCM Agreement exempts, for a limited period of time, certain subsidies granted in connection with privatization programmes provided certain conditions are met.

HOW TO NOTIFY?⁶

REGULAR NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Notification of subsidies

In November 2003, the Committee adopted a questionnaire format for subsidy notifications (G/SCM/6/Rev.1).

Notification of Countervailing Measures

The Committee agreed on a standard format for semi-annual reports (G/SCM/2/Rev.1) and on the minimum information to be provided in reports under Article 25.11 on all preliminary or final countervailing actions (G/SCM/3/Rev.1).

Notification of Competent Authorities

This notification requirement can be fulfilled by providing to the Committee the name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and email address(es) of the investigating authority. There is no standard format.

Notification of Countervailing Duty Legislation

There is no standard format.

SPECIAL NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Notifications Related to the Provisions of Article 27 Regarding Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Country Members

Privatization programmes (Article 27.13) follows the format in G/SCM/15.

Export competitiveness (Articles 27.5 and 27.6) no standard format has been developed for such notifications, and to date no such notifications have been submitted.

Please see illustrative mock examples listing different situations and explaining when/how to notify depending on the situation.

PART 2 | LISTING OF THE NOTIFICATION OBLIGATIONS

NOTIFICATION OBLIGATIONS

EXPIRED NOTIFICATIONS

PART 3 | RELEVANT DOCUMENT(S) CONCERNING GUIDELINES AND FORMATS

The notification formats and requests pertaining to the notification provisions in effect can be accessed through the following links:

Questionnaire format for subsidy notifications under Article 25 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and under Article XVI of GATT 1994 G/SCM/6/Rev.1.

Format for notifications under Article 27.13 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures G/SCM/15.

Minimum information to be provided under Article 25.11 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in the reports on all preliminary or final countervailing actions G/SCM/3/Rev.1.

Format for semi-annual reports of countervailing duty actions pursuant to Article 25.11 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures G/SCM/2/Rev.1.

Notification under Articles 25.11 and 25.12 of Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures G/SCM/129.

Notification of laws and regulations under Article 32.6 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures- Supplement G/SCM/N/1/Suppl.1.

Informal contact group on Anti-dumping Subsidies and Safeguards PC/IPL/11 Refer to Annex 7 (Semi-Annual Reports of Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Actions).

Notification of Competent Authorities G/SCM/N/18.

Notification of Laws and Regulations under Article 32.6 Of the Agreement G/SCM/N/1.

PART 4 | LIST OF NOTIFICATIONS SINCE 1995

LIST OF NOTIFICATION OBLIGATIONS

List of Notifications under Article 25.1

Notifications under Article 25.1.

List of Notifications under Article 25.11 (Ad hoc)

Notifications under Article 25.11.

List of Notifications under Article 25.11 (Regular-Semiannual)

Notifications under Article 25.11.

List of Notifications under Article 25.12

Notifications under Article 25.12.

List of Notifications under Article 27.13

Notifications under Article 27.13.

List of Notifications under Article 27.4 Part VIII

Notifications under Article 27.4 Part VIII.

List of Notifications under Article 32.6

Notifications under Article 32.6.

LIST OF EXPIRED NOTIFICATIONS

List of Notifications under Article 28.1

Notifications under Article 28.1.

List of Notifications under Article 29.3

Notifications under Article 29.3.

List of Notifications under Article 27.11

Notifications under Article 27.11.

PART 5 | TEXT OF THE AGREEMENT

Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures LT/UR/A-1A/9.

Notes

¹ Article 25.6 provides that a Member must also provide a nil notification if it considers that there are no measures in its territory that require notification.

² WT/L/691.

³ The procedures on which the extensions were originally granted are contained in document G/SCM/39.

⁴ Article XVI:1 of the GATT 1994 requires the notification of subsidies, including any form of price or income support, which have an impact on the exports or imports of the product benefiting from the subsidy.

⁵ See document G/SCM/129, dated 29 October 2009.

⁶ All notifications, regardless of their subject content or the requirement under which they are being submitted, must be directed to the administrator of the Central Registry of Notifications (CRN), as indicated in document WT/INF/25/Rev.2. Notifications may be submitted through online submission systems, as electronic attachments to emails or on paper. As it may be practice, a copy of the notification may be sent to the Secretariat unit substantially handling the notification.

⁷ All notifications, regardless of their subject content or the requirement under which they are being submitted, must be directed to the administrator of the Central Registry of Notifications (CRN), as indicated in document WT/INF/25/Rev.2. Notifications may be submitted through online submission systems, as electronic attachments to emails or on paper. As it may be practice, a copy of the notification may be sent to the Secretariat unit substantially handling the notification.