Determining Subsidy Nature of Feed-in Tariff Program in Renewable Energy Generation Industry: An Analysis to Canada Renewable Energy Case

Due to concerns over sustainable development and environmental protection,renewable energy generation has been regarded as an important supplement to conventional energy generation. The supporting policies taken by many countries to promote the new industry have led to more and more trade frictions. As a price guarantee for promoting renewable energy generation,feed-in tariff program has been challenged by the World Trade Organization. Within the current subsidy framework,the fact that the price of renewable energy is shaped by the intervention of government cannot automatically mean the existence of subsidy. Comparable market bench needs to be located. The imperfections in current WTO subsidy rules have led to many uncertainties of determining subsidy,but Chinese renewable energy industry still have the need to change their current practice that are obviously inconsistent with the subsidy rules.