RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SCM/Q2/CAN/15
8 November 1999
(99-4814)
Committee on Subsidies
and Countervailing MeasuresOriginal:  English
SUBSISIDES
Follow-Up Questions from the UNITED STATES
Regarding the New and Full Notification of CANADA1
The following communication, dated 4 November 1999, has been received from the
Permanent Mission of the United States.
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In the chapeau to Canada’s response to the United States’ written questions on Canada’s 1998
new and full notification of subsidies, Canada states that “the provinces have not advised the Federal
Government of any programmes that meet the criteria for the purposes of notification” and “the
relevant provincial governments ... are submitt ing the following information for purposes of
transparency”.
The United States appreciates the information about certain Canadian provincial programmes
which was provided, and understands that it is not always possible to state with clarity or
definitiveness how or whether a particular programme conforms to the applicable notification criteria.
However, we found the chapeau language quoted above to be somewhat confusing, and request that
Canada address the following two questions with a view towards clarifying its reply.
1. Does Canada accept that the measures, programmes or practices of provincial governments
meeting the definition of a subsidy as set forth in Article 1.1 of the Agreement, and which are
specific within the meaning of Article 2, are subject to the notification provisions of
Article 25 of the Agreement?
2. If so, without prejudging the legal status of such measures, their effects under the Agreement
or the nature of the measures themselves ( cf. Article 25.7), could Canada please comment on
the relationship of each of the assistance measures about which information was supplied in
its response to the notification criteria contained in Article 25.2, i.e., in relation to the
Agreement’s definition of a subsidy and criteria for determining specificity?
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1 G/SCM/N/38/CAN and G/SCM/Q2/CAN/12