Tan Kin Lian - Perspectives Dispute over government subsidies
All countries "subsidizes" their producers. The subsidy can come in the form of infrastructure (which reduces the operating cost of their producers), cheap energy or by financial grants.

The US does it. Europe does it. China does it. Japan does it. Singapore does it. Almost every country does it.

It is dishonest for any country to accuse another country of "unfair subsidy". What is fair or unfair is a matter of opinion.

If a country subsidizes its producers, the producers are able to export the products at lower cost to other countries. The important countries benefit from lower cost imports, which makes them more competitive if their lower cost imports are used for their manufacture and export of manufactured goods.

If a country subsidizes its agriculture producers who then sell their agriculture products to another country, why should the consumers of the importing country complain about lower prices of these products?

The cheap imports affect the producers in the importing country. The government can provide countervailing subsidies to help its own producers. The government should not complain about what the other countries do.

At present, the biggest complaints against "unfair subsidies" are being made by the US and Europe. They are not able to compete due to inefficiency and high cost. They should be honest and recognize that they have to deal with their own internal problems, rather than blame other countries.

Tan Kin Lian

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