Illustrative List. The Illustrative List of prohibited export subsidies is a non-exhaustive inventory of prohibited export subsidies, and generally speaking, no inference can be drawn that a practice that does not fit in the description given in the List is not an export subsidy. The most controversial provision on the List is the proviso to item (k), which states that export credit practices that conform with the interest rate provisions of an international undertaking on official export credit ‘shall not be considered an export credit prohibited by this Agreement’. The reference here is to the OECD Arrangement on Guidelines for Officially Supported Export Credits. It has to be understood that even if the measures covered by the proviso are not prohibited export subsidies they are still subsidies as they fulfil the conditions laid down in the ASCM definition of subsidies. The safe haven that has been created in the proviso to item (k) provides immunity from action under Article 4 of the ASCM and not from action under other provisions of that Agreement such as Part V on Countervailing Duties. Moreover, countries other than the participants in the OECD Arrangement have also been given the facility of subscribing to the interest rate provisions of the Arrangement. The controversy regarding the proviso to item (k) arises less from the substantive dilution of the basic ASCM commitment of prohibition of export subsidies and more from the fact such dilution has been based on an agreement among a few of the WTO Members. It has become symbolic of the way in which the multilateral rules of the WTO have been manipulated to respond to the interests of the industrialised country Members. As noted by the Compliance Panel in Canada–Civilian Aircraft, the provision is quite unique as it creates an exemption from a prohibition in a WTO Agreement and the scope of the exemption is left in the hands of a subgroup of WTO Members, ‘to define, and to change as and when they think fit’. From the point of view of India’s trade interest there is no reason to seek any change in the provisions of the Illustrative List. However, India must raise the question of converting the proviso to item (k) into a truly multilateral rule, delinked from the OECD.
Illustrative List. The specific sectors shall be determined at a later date. 11 It is understood that according to Article 22.1 (Withdrawal or Mutually Satisfactory Solution), all the other Parties to the Agreement must be notified of all mutually satisfactory solutions.
Illustrative List. (a) Paragraph 1(a)
