This inaugural edition of IISD's Trade and Sustainability Review features analytical pieces and commentaries on a series of topics at the forefront of the trade and sustainability discussion, from subsidy reform efforts at the World Trade Organization to the impact of COVID-19 on export markets.

This report explains how recent amendments to the harmonized coding system used to track international merchandise trade will help improve the monitoring of trade in both environmentally sensitive products and environmental goods.

This report provides methodological guidance for measuring fossil fuel subsidies in the context of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 12.c.1: “Amount of fossil fuel subsidies per unit of GDP (production and consumption)”.

One of the key challenges of subsidy reform is a lack of consistent, internationally-comparable data. Information and guidance on how to measure subsidies is incomplete. As a first step towards developing internationally-agreed upon subsidy estimation methods and best practice, the GSI has…

The GSI's proposed template for WTO subsidy notifications is designed to address some of the problems inherent in the notification format that contribute to poor compliance. For example, under the current format, it is not clear whether the absence of subsidies is because they do not exist, or…

This report provides an in-depth analysis of government support to biofuels in Canada, including a comprehensive quantification of the amount of public money spent on supporting biofuels. The report finds a growing array of subsidy programs at the federal, provincial, and even municipal levels that…

This report on government subsidies for biofuels in Australia by the Global Subsidies Initiative of the IISD finds the Australian government spent A$95 million on supporting biofuel production and consumption in 2006-07. The Global Subsidies Initiative analyzes government subsidies and the ways in…

The GSI report, "Biofuels at What Cost? Government Support for Ethanol and Biodiesel in the European Union", questions the rationale behind the very large sums of money being invested in support of this particular form of energy. Subsidies and other forms of government support are strongly…

A synthesis of reports addressing subsidies for biofuels in Australia, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland and the United States from the Global Subsidies Initiative of IISD.

Report on government support for biofuels in Switzerland by the Global Subsidies Initiative of IISD.