Global Trade Alert

In June 2015, the German government substantially increased state aid for the country's shipbuilding industry.
 
The programme has been active for ten years and the industry received 8.9 million EUR in 2014. On 3 June 2015, the German government increased that amount to 15 million EUR per year in 2015 and 2016.
The aid will cover costs associated with innovative shipbuilding products as well as innovative processes. The funding rate will be 25% for large companies and 50% for SMEs.
According to the measure description, the programme is meant to "strengthen the competitiveness of German shipyards and secure job positions in partially structure-weak areas" (own translation).
In the GTA database the determination of whether a policy instrument discriminates against foreign commercial interests turns on whether it creates or alters the relative treatment of domestic firms versus foreign commercial interests. On this metric, the state aid proposed here is discriminatory because the state aid is not available to competing firms outside of the implementing jurisdiction.