International Organizations Launch Platform to Promote Access to Subsidy Information

IMF News, May 25, 2023

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Canonical URL: International Organizations Launch Platform to Promote Access to Subsidy Information

Press Release No. 23/179
Date: May 25, 2023
Announcement by the heads of the IMF, OECD, World Bank, and WTO of the launch of a Joint Subsidy Platform (JSP) at www.subsidydata.org to enhance transparency on the use of subsidies.
Purpose: to facilitate access to information on the nature, size, and economic impact of subsidies and to facilitate dialogue on their appropriate use and design.

Signatories: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (WTO), Mathias Cormann (OECD), David Malpass (World Bank), and Kristalina Georgieva (IMF).
Key messages from the joint statement:
- Since the April 2022 joint report on Subsidies, Trade, and International Cooperation, the magnitude of costly subsidies has grown and tensions around their use have increased.
- International emergencies and the climate crisis underscore that in some circumstances well-designed subsidies can have a legitimate, albeit often only temporary, role.
- Governments using subsidies to address market failures need to ensure measures are transparent, respect trade commitments, and do not undermine policy predictability.
- Subsidies should not be used to provide a competitive advantage to domestic industry and should seek to minimize cost and distorting effects on trading partners.
- Building a more common understanding across governments on appropriate uses and design of subsidies is required.

Initial contribution:
- Improve transparency on subsidies by facilitating access to data on their nature, size, and economic impact.
Intended ongoing actions:
- Continue to develop and extend the Platform.
- Deepen the organizations' own analysis.
- Identify critical shortcomings in data availability.
- Support high-quality analysis by others.
- Leverage and encourage development and disclosure of more data and analysis to promote stronger dialogue on subsidies among governments, based on a more comprehensive set of subsidies data, with the aim of leading to better policies and de-escalating trade tensions.

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International Organizations Launch Platform to Promote Access to Subsidy Information — Press Release No. 23/179, May 25, 2023.