"How to Stop the Global Subsidies Race": Policy Forum on Oct 9

For those in the DC area, Cato will be holding a policy forum on subsidies, on Oct. 9.  Here are all the details: 

Countervailing Calamity: How to Stop the Global Subsidies Race

POLICY FORUM
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
4:00 PM (Reception To Follow)

Featuring Tim Carney, Washington Examiner; Scott Lincicome, White and Case, LLP; and John Magnus, TradeWins LLC; moderated by Dan Ikenson, Cato Institute.

The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Solyndra, Government Motors, and the tens of billions of dollars transferred annually from U.S. taxpayers to America's wealthy agribusinesses—including the occasional farmer living in Manhattan. Worldwide, government subsidies to chosen industries and favored companies are out of control, bankrupting treasuries, breeding cronyism, misdirecting and deterring private investment, distorting market signals, and undermining support for capitalism and free trade. Always demanding more, domestic subsidy recipients cite foreign subsidies as grounds for yet more largesse, and the cycle continues. How will this global subsidies race end? "Very badly," according to experts who argue that policymakers must find a way to rein in this economically and politically corrosive process.

Cato events, unless otherwise noted, are free of charge. To register for this event, please fill out the form below and click submit or email events@cato.org, fax (202) 371-0841, or call (202) 789-5229 by 4:00 PM, Monday, October 8, 2012. Please arrive early. Seating is limited and not guaranteed. News media inquiries only (no registrations), please call (202) 789-5200.

The registration form is here.  Many of you probably know Scott from his blog.  Scott has a forthcoming Cato paper on subsidies, which is the basis of the forum.

I'm going to use my power and privileges as a blogger (there are not many of these) to pose a question in advance of the event, for the participants to mull over beforehand.  Here goes:

I argued here that WTO subsidies rules should be thought of as targeting "protectionist" subsidies.  Is that the best way to characterize subsidy rules?  If not protectionism, what should subsidies rules target?