US revokes WTO subsidy preferences for some developing nations, including China, India and Singapore
- Move reflects Trump’s frustration that some large economies still receive preferential trade benefits as developing nations at the World Trade Organisation
- Other economies removed from internal list include Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea
The Trump administration is changing a key exemption to America’s trade-remedy laws to make it easier to penalise about two dozen so-called developing economies, including China, Hong Kong, India and Singapore.
The US on Monday narrowed its internal list of developing and least-developed countries to reduce the threshold for triggering a US investigation into whether nations are harming US industries with unfairly subsidised exports, according to a US Trade Representative notice.
In doing so, the US eliminated its special preferences for a list of self-declared developing economies that includes: Albania; Argentina; Armenia; Brazil; Bulgaria; China; Colombia; Costa Rica; Georgia; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia; Kazakhstan; the Kyrgyz Republic; Malaysia; Moldova; Montenegro; North Macedonia; Romania; Singapore; South Africa; South Korea; Thailand; Ukraine; and Vietnam.
USTR said the decision to revise its developing country methodology for countervailing duty investigations was necessary because America’s previous guidance – which dates back to 1998 – “is now obsolete”.
The development marks a noteworthy departure from two decades of American trade policy regarding developing nations that could result in more stringent penalties for some of the world’s top exporters.