In a Joint Statement representatives of the European Union (EU), the United States (U.S.) and Japan announced their agreement to strengthen existing rules on industrial subsidies and condemned forced technology transfer practices.

The EU, the U.S. and Japan agree that the current list of subsidies prohibited under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) rules is insufficient to tackle market and trade distorting subsidisation existing in certain jurisdictions. They want new types of unconditionally prohibited subsidies to be added to the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

The EU, U.S. and Japan also agreed that for particularly harmful types of subsidies, such as excessively large subsidies, the burden of proof should be reversed: the subsidising WTO member must demonstrate that there are no serious negative trade or capacity effects and that there is effective transparency about the subsidy in question.

The signatories of the statement also reaffirmed the importance of technology transfers for global trade and investment and discussed possible core rules to be introduced to prevent forced technology transfer practices of third countries.

The Joint Statement also confirmed continued cooperation on a number of key items such as:

  • The importance of market-oriented conditions;
  • Reform of the WTO, to include increasing compliance with existing WTO notification obligations;
  • Pressing advanced WTO members claiming developing country status to undertake full commitments in ongoing and future WTO negotiations;
  • International rule making and trade related aspects of electronic commerce at the WTO, and;
  • International forums such as the Global Forum of Steel Excess Capacity and the Governments/Authorities' Meeting on Semiconductors.

The Joint Statement is seen as an important step toward resolving some key issues in the lead up to the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in June 2020 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

 

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