22 Feb 2016
Ilaria Espa presents paper at University of Leuven international conference
WTI researcher Dr Ilaria Espa participated in the International Conference on Global Public Goods, Global Commons and Democracy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives organised by the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies at the Irish Institute, Leuven, on 22-23 February.
She presented the paper 'On the Legal, Political, and Economic Origins of Actual and Potential WTO Disputes on Subsidies for Fossil and Renewable Energy Sources' together with Professor Dirk de Bièvre of the University of Antwerp.
The paper explains the nature and applicability of WTO rules against harmful subsidisation. It offers an overview of both actual and potential that could be brought to the WTO by drawing on trade barrier reports of the US Trade Representative (USTR) and European Commission Market Access Database (MADB). It considers a number of possible explanations for why fossil fuel energy subsidies have eluded WTO scrutiny so far.
Further info
Conference information