Criteria for Public Subsidies to Industry

Abstract

This report has been concerned with the relationship between domestic policies of industrial and regional support involving the use of subsidies, and international commercial policy. More specifically, it aimed at clarifying how far domestic subsidies distort international trade, and what limitations should therefore be set on them in the interests of securing the benefits of free trade. The issues raised are complex, the subject has so far been inadequately researched, and this is far from the ideal study that would be needed. It is offered, however, as a contribution to throwing light in dark corners, and in the hope that it will stimulate others, and especially governments, to examine the interrelationship between these all-too-separate areas of their policy-making.