|
SEE ALSO:
> Press releases
> News archives
> Pascal
Lamy’s speeches
|
The PGE is a body of five independent experts that may be requested to
assist a panel, provide an advisory opinion on the existence and nature
of any subsidy, or be consulted by any member on the nature of any
subsidy it intends to introduce or currently maintains.
China expressed concern over what it described as a substantially high
number of countervailing-duty investigations by the United States on
Chinese products since the end of 2006. It also complained about
Canada's countervailing duty investigation on seamless carbon or alloy
steel oil and gas well casings from China. The United States said its
investigating authority, the US Department of Commerce, has an "open
door" policy on meeting with interested parties. Canada said that its
laws are fully consistent with the Subsidies Agreement, and that its
investigating authority provides full explanations of its findings.
The Committee reviewed notifications of national legislation from
Albania, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
The Committee also held a special meeting to continue the review of
previous notifications from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland,
Cuba, New Zealand, Qatar, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, China and the United
States. At this meeting, the United States reiterated concerns about the
lack of a notification from China on subsidy programmes of its
sub-national bodies, and on certain lending policies of state-owned
banks in China. China said that as a developing country with a large
population and 36 regional governments, it would need more time to
complete such a notification.
The Committee elected by acclamation Mr Jun Kazeki (Japan) to succeed Mr
Pablo Klein (Mexico) as Chair. Mr Kazeki commended Mr Klein's leadership
of the Committee, especially in forging agreements on the recent
extension of the transition periods for export subsidy programmes of
certain developing countries and on the procedures for filling the
current PGE vacancies.
The next meeting is scheduled for the week of 27 October 2008.
|
> Problems viewing this page?
Please contact webmaster@wto.org giving details of the operating system and web browser you are using.
|
