351.522—Green light and green box subsidies.
(a) Certain agricultural subsidies.
The Secretary will treat as non-countervailable domestic support measures that are provided to certain agricultural products (i.e., products listed in Annex 1 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture) and that the Secretary determines conform to the criteria of Annex 2 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. See section 771(5B )(F) of the Act. The Secretary will determine that a particular domestic support measure conforms fully to the provisions of Annex 2 if the Secretary finds that the measure:
(1)
Is provided through a publicly-funded government program (including government revenue foregone) not involving transfers from consumers;
(2)
Does not have the effect of providing a price support to producers; and (3) Meets the relevant policy-specific criteria and conditions set out in paragraphs 2 through 13 of Annex 2.
(b) Research subsidies.
In accordance with section 771(5B )(B)(iii)(II) of the Act, the Secretary will examine the total eligible costs to be incurred over the duration of a particular project to determine whether a subsidy for research activities exceeds 75 percent of the costs of industrial research, 50 percent of the costs of precompetitive development activity, or 62.5 percent of the costs for a project that includes both industrial research and precompetitive activity. If the Secretary determines that, at some point over the life of a particular project, these relevant thresholds will be exceeded, the Secretary will treat the entire amount of the subsidy as countervailable.
(c) Subsidies for adaptation of existing facilities to new environmental requirements.
If the Secretary determines that a subsidy is given to upgrade existing facilities to environmental standards in excess of minimum statutory or regulatory requirements, the subsidy will not qualify for non-countervailable treatment under section 771(5B )(D) of the Act and the Secretary will treat the entire amount of the subsidy as countervailable.