ABSTRACT
Coming to an agreement on a ‘new and improved’ Subsidies Code has not been an easy task; it has taken nearly eight years for the 117 members of the GATT to reach a final agreement on some of the most contentious trade issues of our time. Throughout the tumultu ous process, the breakdowns, and the walkouts, part of the difficulty was the divergent expectations and objectives with which the partici pants entered into the negotiations. Aside from issues such as agricultural subsidies and the civil aircraft problem that threatened to derail the entire process, the key participants in the negotiations over the subsidies code could not agree on why a subsidies code was even needed.
