Viewing an earlier version · effective Jan 3, 2017View current (a) Certain agricultural subsidies. The Secretary will treat as non-countervailable domestic support measures that are provided to certain agricultural products (i.e., products listed in Annex 1 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture) and that the Secretary determines conform to the criteria of Annex 2 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. See section 771(5B)(F) of the Act. The Secretary will determine that a particular domestic support measure conforms fully to the provisions of Annex 2 if the Secretary finds that the measure:
- (1) Is provided through a publicly-funded government program (including government revenue foregone) not involving transfers from consumers;
- (2) Does not have the effect of providing a price support to producers; and (3) Meets the relevant policy-specific criteria and conditions set out in paragraphs 2 through 13 of Annex 2.
- (b) Research subsidies. In accordance with section 771(5B)(B)(iii)(II) of the Act, the Secretary will examine the total eligible costs to be incurred over the duration of a particular project to determine whether a subsidy for research activities exceeds 75 percent of the costs of industrial research, 50 percent of the costs of precompetitive development activity, or 62.5 percent of the costs for a project that includes both industrial research and precompetitive activity. If the Secretary determines that, at some point over the life of a particular project, these relevant thresholds will be exceeded, the Secretary will treat the entire amount of the subsidy as countervailable.
- (c) Subsidies for adaptation of existing facilities to new environmental requirements. If the Secretary determines that a subsidy is given to upgrade existing facilities to environmental standards in excess of minimum statutory or regulatory requirements, the subsidy will not qualify for non-countervailable treatment under section 771(5B)(D) of the Act and the Secretary will treat the entire amount of the subsidy as countervailable.