A Study On Specificity Standards Of Subsidies In International Trade

Specificity standard has a great significance in the subsidies determination,it is the premise to take countervailing measures.Through the specificity standard screening the subsidy measures,it's not only governs the subsidies measures,but also restricts the countervailing measures.On the one hand,we impose countervailing duties to the enterprises or industries which received specific subsidies,to avoid a result of distortion of the allocation of resources;On the other hand,we can not impose countervailing duties to all subsidies,because not all subsidies measures have distorted the allocation of resources.Specificity standard provides us with precisely such a yardstick to judge,to some extent,it limit the number of anti-subsidy complaint,and can avoid fierce trade war which caused by frequent excessive use of countervailing measures.SCMA' specificity standard came from the legislation and practice of the United States specificity standard.The United States is not only the legislative inaugurator but also the most important practitioners of specificity standard.SCMA distinguish the de jure specificity and the de facto specificity,it is very similar to the double examination criteria of the United States' legislation and practice.After SCMA's provision,the EC has also introduced the specificity standard into their countervailing duty Jaw,and applied it into practice.China currently has no countervailing practice experience on other countries,the related provisions of specificity standard is mainly reflected in the anti-subsidy laws,but they are not complete.On the one hand,it is worth learning the legislation and practice of specificity standard of the United States and the EC,On the other hand,there is a growing anti-subsidy investigation trend towards China.So it is very important to understand the situation how the United States and the EC take countervailing measures which based on their standard of specificity in their legislation and practice,it's also helpful for China that how to cope with the growing anti-subsidy investigations in recent years.