Priorities for Action

There are compelling reasons to strengthen cooperation on subsidy practices. Some subsidies distort trade and investment, disrupt foreign markets, and feed a sense that international competition is not evenhanded. New subsidies may undermine the benefits of past tariff and market-access negotiations. Other subsidies harm the environment. When they consider cooperation to be insufficient, some governments are responding with more aggressive unilateral actions to limit the disruption and harm to directly affected domestic industries. But these actions have only limited influence on foreign subsidy practices and have unintended consequences for other domestic industries.