"Serious Prejudice" Through the Use of Subsidies in the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in the WTO: Focusing on U.S. Upland Cotton case

This paper aims to grasp the nature of "serious prejudice" through the use of subsidies in the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures in the WTO and to address its problems by focusing on US - Upland Cotton. The concept of serious prejudice is well elaborated therein so as to make it easier to demonstrate its existence and degree. Due to the fact that serious prejudice was demonstrated by reviewing the nature of the subsidies on US - Upland Cotton, a defending member would inevitably be required to modify the subsidy program to comply with recommendations or rulings of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). Serious prejudice is now a handy tool to force a defendant to modify or eliminate the said subsidy program, since major members have increased subsidies under protectionism following the recent world financial and economic crisis.