- 27.1
- Members recognize that subsidies may play an important role in economic development programmes of developing country Members.
- 27.2
- The prohibition of paragraph 1(a) of Article 3 shall not apply to :
- developing country Members referred to in Annex VII.
- other developing country Members for a period of eight years from the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement, subject to compliance with the provisions in paragraph 4.
- 27.3
- The prohibition of paragraph 1(b) of Article 3 shall not apply to developing country Members for a period of five years, and shall not apply to least developed country Members for a period of eight years, from the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement.
- 27.4
- Any developing country Member referred to in paragraph 2(b) shall phase out its export subsidies within the eight year period, preferably in a progressive manner. However, a developing country Member shall not increase the level of its export subsidies, and shall eliminate them within a period shorter than that provided for in this paragraph when the use of such export subsidies is inconsistent with its development needs. If a developing country Member deems it necessary to apply such subsidies beyond the 8-year period, it shall not later than one year before the expiry of this period enter into consultation with the Committee which will determine whether an extension of this period is justified, after examining all the relevant economic, financial and development needs of the developing country Member in question, if the Committee determines that the extension is justified, the developing country Member shall hold annual consultations with the Committee to determine the necessity of maintaining the subsidies. If no such determination is made by the Committee, the developing country Member shall phase out the remaining export subsidies within two years from the end of the last authorized period.
- 27.5
- A developing country Member which has reached export competitiveness in any given product shall phase out its export/subsidies for such product(s) over a period of two years. However, for a developing country Member which is referred to in Annex VII and which has reached export competitiveness in one or more products, export subsidies on such products shall be gradually phased out over a period of eight years.
- 27.6
- Export competitiveness in a product exists if a developing country Member’s exports of that product have reached a share of at least 3.25 per cent in world trade of that product for two consecutive calendar years. Export competitiveness shall exist either (a) On the basis of notification by the developing country Member having reached export competitiveness, or (b) on the basis of a computation undertaken by the Secretariat at the request of any Member. For the purpose of this paragraph, a product is defined as a section heading of the Harmonised System Nomenclature. The Committee shall review the operation of this provision five year from the date of the entry into force of the WTO Agreement.
- 27.7
- The provisions of Article 4 shall not apply to a developing country Member in the case of export subsidies which are in conformity with the provisions of paragraph 2 through 5 The relevant provisions in such a case shall be those of Article 7.
- 27.8
- There shall be no presumption in terms of paragraph 1 of Article 6 that a subsidy granted by a developing country Member results in serious prejudice, as defined in this Agreement, Such serious prejudice, where applicable under the terms of paragraph 9,shall be demonstrated by positive evidence, in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs 3 through 8 Article 6.
- 27.9
- Regarding actionable subsidies granted or maintained by a developing country Member other than those referred to in paragraph 1 of Article 6, action may not be authorized or taken under Article 7 unless nullification or impairment of tariff concessions or other obligations under GATT 1994 is found to exist as a result of such a subsidy, in such a way as to displace or impede imports of a like product of another Member into the market of the subsidizing developing country Member or unless injury to a domestic industry in the market of an importing Member occurs.
- 27.10
- Any countervailing duty investigation of a product originating in a developing country Member shall be terminated soon as the authorities concerned determine that :
- the overall level of subsidies granted upon the product in question does not exceed 2 per cent of its value calculated on a per unit basis; or
- the volume of the subsidized imports represents less than 4 per cent of the total imports of the like product in the importing Member, unless imports from developing country Members whose individual shares of total imports represent less than 4 percent collectively account for more than 9 percent of the total imports of the like product in the importing Member.
- 27.11
- For those developing country Members within the scope of paragraph 2(b) which have eliminated export subsidies prior to the expiry of the period of eight years from the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement, and for those developing country Members referred to in Annex VII, the number in paragraph 10(a) shall be 3 percent rather than 2 per cent. This provision shall apply from the date that the elimination of export subsidies is notifying developing country Member. This provision shall expire eight years from the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement.
- 27.12
- The provisions of paragraphs 10 and 11 shall govern any determination of de minimis under paragraph 3 of Article 15.
- 27.13
- The provisions of Part III shall not apply to direct forgiveness of debts, subsidies to cover social costs, in whatever form, including relinquishment of government revenue and other transfer of liabilities when such subsidies are granted within and directly linked to a privatization programme of a developing country Member, provided that both such programme and the subsidies involved are granted for a limited period and notified to the Committee and that the programme results in eventual privatization of the enterprise concerned.
- 27.14
- The Committee shall, upon request by an interested developing country Member, undertake a review of a specific countervailing measure to examine whether it is consistent with the provisions of paragraphs 10 and 11 as applicable to the developing country Member in question.