Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in the Final Act of the Uruguay Round

The Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures is intended to build on the Agreement on Interpretation and Application of Articles VI, XVI and XXIII which was negotiated in the Tokyo Round. It contains a definition of subsidy and introduces the concept of a "specific" subsidy, a subsidy available only to an enterprise or industry or group of enterprises or industries within the jurisdiction of the authority granting the subsidy. The agreement also establishes three categories of subsides : "prohibited" subsidies, "actionable" subsidies and "non-actionable" subsidies.