RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SCM/W/488
7 February 2002
(02-0602)
Committee on Subsidies
and Countervailing MeasuresOriginal:  English
MEMBERS' DIFFICULTIES IN MAKING SUBSIDY NOTIFICATIONS,
AND THE PLANNED SUBSIDY NOTIFICATION SEMINAR
Reply to Questions in document G/SCM/W/473
of 18 December 2001
Paper Submitted by Indonesia
The following communication, dated 5 February 2002, has been received from the Permanent
Delegation of Indonesia.
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B. QUESTIONS CONCERNING DIFFICULTIES IN NOTIFYING
Q1. Does your government face resource constraints in trying to make subsidy notifications?
If so, what are the major bottlenecks in the notification system of your government?  Is the
problem primarily an insufficient number  of staff to handle the notifications, or is it more a
question of insufficiently trained  staff?
Reply
The Government of Indonesia faces difficulties in preparing subsidy notifications due to the
fact that the responsible institution is new.  Therefore the major bottlenecks in the notification system
are insufficient staff.
Q2. Depending on your answer to question 1, above, if the notification questionnaire format
could be simplified, would this make a difference to your government’s ability to make the
required subsidy notifications?
Reply
By simplifying the notification system, we hope it will be much easier for us to notify the
subsidies.
Q3. Balancing your government’s needs for as simp le a format as possible against its needs
to be able to understand other Members’ notifications when it reviews them, how muchsimplification could be introduced without sacrificing transparency?
Reply
The major parts of the simplification are its procedure and requirements of notifying subsidy.G/SCM/W/488
Page 2
Q4. Considering the notification format itself, and the concepts underlying it as found in
SCM Articles 1-3, in your government’ s experience, do individuals responsible for making
notifications have difficulties understanding the requirements due to the language used in the
Agreement to define “subsidy”, “specificity”, etc. ?  For example, do these individuals believe
that subsidies are in the nature of cash grants  only, and do not encompass revenue foregone via
tax and duty incentives?  Could some sort of explanation be introduced into the questionnaire
format to make more clear the scope of measures that are subject to notification?  How might
such an explanation be worded?
Reply
Please provide some examples to each questionnaire to clarify the questionnaire.
Q5. Does your government experience general pr oblems due to the formatting requirements
of the notification questionnaire?  In particular, does your government maintain any pre-
existing information that addresses the substance of the notification questionnaire, but does notcorrespond to the questionnaire’s format?  If so, what are the specific problems that your
government encounters when it tries to fo rmat the information as required by the
questionnaire?  If the information were to be notified in its pre-existing format, could it
nevertheless be keyed to the data elements of the subsidy questionnaire?
Q6. In reviewing other Members’ notifications, would your government find it problematic
to review information that was formatted in a way other than the way foreseen in the subsidy
questionnaire, but that comprehensively ad dressed the substantive elements of the
questionnaire?  How important would it be for this information to be keyed or coded to the
questionnaire format?
Reply
Since our institution was established only about eight months ago we do not have any
experience of either notifying subsidies available in Indonesia or reviewing other Members'
notifications.
Q7. Does your government maintain any info rmation about its subsidy or incentive
programmes on official web sites?  How much wo uld your notification of subsidies be simplified
if such information could be submitted in its pre-existing format?  As a reviewer of
notifications, what sorts of limits should there be to the substitution of information from web
sites for completed notification questionnaires?  Would references to web sites be a usefulsupplement to substantive information provided in a notification?
Reply
The Government of Indonesia does not maintain any information about its subsidies on
official web sites.
Q8. Concerning General Rule 6, which requires that  notification of subsidies provided “to
specific products or sectors” be organized on a product- or sector-specific basis, does this rule
pose problems for your government when notifying subsidies that are provided on a horizontal,rather than a product- or sector-specific basis?   What are the specific steps and difficulties in
preparing sector- or product-specific informatio n for subsidies provided on a horizontal basis?G/SCM/W/488
Page 3
Reply
The specific difficulties in preparing sector- or product-specific information for subsidies
provided on a horizontal basis are to collect information across departments.
Q9. Does this rule present problems for notifi cation of subsidies that are provided on a
product- or sector-specific basis (e.g., some agricultural subsidies)?
Reply
Notification of subsidies that are provided on a product- or sector-specific basis may not
present problems.
Q10. Would a redrafting of General Rule 6 to refer to subsidies "provided on the basis of
specific products or sectors" help to resolve this  problem?  (The idea would be to clarify that
programme-based information, rather than product- or sector-specific information would be
required for subsidies provided on a horizontal basis, which product- or sector-specificsubsidies would continue to need to be notified on that basis.)
Q11. Would such a redrafting pose problems for the review of subsidy notifications, and if so,
what would those problems be?
Q12. To what extent does the general requirement to provide statistical information on the
trade effects of notified subsidies (chapeau of item 9) impede or delay the presentation of
subsidy notifications?
Q13. To what extent does the need to compile the specific kinds of statistical information
referred to in items 9(a) and 9(b) impede or delay the presentation of subsidy notifications?
14. How important is this statistical informat ion about other Members’  subsidies to your
government when reviewing subsidy notificati ons?  Could these reporting requirements be
made less stringent in some manner?  If so, how?
15. Does your government find, in preparing subs idy notifications, th at there is conceptual
overlap or redundancy in some of the information elements as currently drafted?
Q16. If your government believes there to be overlap, how might this be eliminated?  What
drafting improvements might be introduced to clarify such situations, while preserving the
substantive requirements of Article 25 from which the questionnaire is drawn?
Q17. Do the requirements to provide information on the policy objective or purpose of the
subsidy, its background and authority, and to whom and how it is provided pose significant
difficulties to your government in preparing its subsidy notifications?  How might these
requirements be simplified?
Q18. Does the requirement to furnish an explanation where a particular element of
information cannot be provided pose particular difficulties to your government in preparing its
notifications?  If so, is there a way to simplify this requirement while preserving its substantive
content?
Q19. Is there sufficient flexibility in item 7 of the subsidy questionnaire (information on the
amounts of subsidies provided) for your government to be able to notify such informationG/SCM/W/488
Page 4
without undue difficulty?  If not, is there a way to simplify this requirement while preserving its
substantive content?
Reply
We cannot comment on questions 10-19 because we do not have experience relating to these
questions.
C. QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO THE SUBSIDY NOTIFICATION SEMINAR
Q1. Concerning the number and nature of pa rticipants in the seminar, how many
individuals in your government have day-to-day responsibility for gathering information about
subsidies and for preparing and submitting subsidy notifications based on that information?  Ifmore than one, please describe the differen ces in these individuals ’ responsibilities.
Reply
The Government of Indonesia has three persons who are responsible for subsidy notifications.
They are Suhardi as coordinator and Muhammad Yani and David Louhenapessy as subordinates.
They are responsible for collecting information, preparing and submitting subsidy notifications as
well as handling subsidy cases.
Q2. Would it be sufficient for your government to  have two participants in the seminar?  If
not, why not, and how many participants would be optimal from your government’s point of
view?
Reply
It would be sufficient for our Government to send two participants to the Seminar.
Q3. Would two days be a sufficient/appropriate length for the seminar?  If not, what would
be more appropriate?
Reply
Three days would be more appropriate because we need one day to understand the procedure
and the preparation of subsidy notifications.
Q4. Would the following schedule be appropriate:  First session:  detailed presentation of the
basic definitions in Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the SCM Agreement, and presentation of the subsidy
notification obligations in the light of these definitions.  Second session:  Presentations by
Members concerning the specific problems they experience in preparing subsidy notifications.
Third session:  Information-sharing and brainstorming among Members as to possible practical
solutions for the identified problems (ways to coordinate and streamline gathering and
formatting of subsidy information).  Fourth session:  Follow-up steps to ensure that information
shared and lessons learned would be retained and implemented.  (It has been emphasized that
to be effective, such follow-up should be immediate and intensive.)  Ideas suggested to date have
included establishment of informal contacts am ong capital-based officials, planning of future
focused technical assistance activities, etc.
Reply
We need another session as mentioned above.G/SCM/W/488
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Q5. Does your government normally send capital-based representatives to the Committee’s
regular meetings?  If not, why not?
Reply
The Indonesian Government is starting to attend the Committee's regular meetings.
Q6. Does your government view this subsidy noti fication seminar as an important event in
improving its ability to understand the subsidy rules, and to make subsidy notifications in a
complete and timely manner?  (That is, does your government view the seminar as a priority
event for its participation?)  Does your government  plan to send capital-based participants to
the seminar?  If so, how many and what are their functions?  If not, why not?
Reply
The Government of Indonesia views the Subsidy Notification Seminar as a very important
event, therefore it should be prioritized because we will begin to notify our subsidies.
Q7. In the view of your government, would financial sponsorship only of participants from
least-developed country Members be appropriate?  If not, why not?  What other objective
criteria for eligibility for financial sponsorship could be developed that might be moreappropriate?
Reply
The Indonesian Government's view is that financial sponsorship would be appropriate only
for participants from least-developed countries and developing countries.
Q8. If your government would be prevented from sending participants to the seminar due to
financial constraints, what is the minimum level of financial sponsorship that would make it
possible to send participants (e.g., airfare only, airfare and subsistence for the days in Geneva,
etc.)?
Reply
The minimum level of financial sponsorship to make it possible to send participants would be
airfare, subsistence allowance for the days in Geneva and other allowances.
Q9. Assuming that it is not possible to finance the seminar out of existing trust funds in the
WTO (a possibility currently being explored), and assuming a total budget of approximately
CHF 225,000, would your government consider making  a donation to finance it?  If so, how
much would your government be in a position to contribute?
Reply
The Government of Indonesia does not have any funds to contribute towards financing the
Seminar.
Q10. If the seminar were financed by earmarked contributions from individual Members,
and there were a surplus in the budget for the seminar (due to fewer than expected participants
from Members eligible for financial sponsorship,  however they might be identified), how shouldG/SCM/W/488
Page 6
any such surplus be disposed of?  Two possible  options have been discussed (i) returning the
surplus to the sponsors on a pro-rata basis; or (ii) making the surplus available on a first-come,
first-served basis to other developing countr y Members.  Are there other, more appropriate,
options?
Reply
The other alternatives to spending the surplus budget are to add participants and/or sessions as
we proposed for reply to C3.
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