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Policy Analysis

Preserving Policy Space for Sustainable Development: The Subsidies Agreement at the WTO - Commentary

By Francisco Aguayo Ayala, Kevin P. Gallagher on December 2, 2005
This is a commentary based on a longer paper produced by the same authors.

The paper upon which this commentary is based addresses the need to preserve the ability of nations to use subsidies in order to correct distortions in the global economy and spur innovation for sustainable development. It shows that the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) created significant policy space for nations to address technological, poverty and environmental problems—all seminal issues for sustainable development—but that such space no longer exists.