1. Industrial policies and WTO rules: old and new challenges to multilateralism
WTO Public Forum
Geneva, September 30, 2015

2. From ASCM and TRIMs Agreement …
WTO instruments specifically addressing industrial policies issues: ASCM and TRIMS Agreement:
Rationale behind the agreements: to counter subsidization and trade-distorting investment policies between developed countries and between developed and developing countries.

3. … to new challenges
The original motivations are still there as shown by the track record of consultations and dispute settlements in the WTO.
But since the Uruguay Round structural changes in the international economy and emerging global challenges are reshaping the landscape where national industrial policies and the WTO rules interact.

4. Which new challenges?
1) the emergence of climate change as a global challenge => the “green industrial policy” issue.
2) the consolidation of global/regional value chains as the dominant model of international organization of industrial production.
3) the growing role of services in trade and investment (…of goods) => ASCM and TRIMs do not cover services.
4) the emergence of China as an industrial super-power and the role of the SOEs. .

5. From new challenges to …
Each of these challenges raises questions relevant to the relationship between industrial policies and WTO rules.
demand for additional policy space or waivers from disciplines, based on new rationales (the “green IP” issues).
demand for expanded scope (or stricter disciplines) of the WTO rules, including new sectors (the “services” issue), new modes of relationship between private and public sector (the “China/SOEs” issue) and new modes of international relationships between private firm (the “GVC” issue).

6. … new questions
Which are the new main drivers and trends in industrial policies, in developed and developing countries?
Are existing multilateral disciplines adequate to deal with new challenges in this policy area?
How to balance, in the new context, the objectives of disciplining trade distorting industrial policies and allowing countries to respond to legitimate non trade concerns?
Where the debate on policy space has led us?