India and China have jointly submitted a proposal to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) calling for the develelimination — by developed countries — of the most trade-distorting form of farm subsidies, as a prerequisite for consideration of other reforms in domestic support negotiations.
Disclosing this, an official statement said, “This is an important proposal by India and China in view of the ongoing negotiations for the upcoming 11th Ministerial Conference (MC) of the WTO to be held in Buenos Aires in December 2017.” The statement added, “It counters the efforts by some countries to target the subsidies of the developing countries while letting the developed countries retain their huge farm subsidies.” The MC is the WTO’s highest decision making body. As per the joint paper (submitted to the WTO on July 18), developed countries, including the US, the EU and Canada, have been consistently providing trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers at levels much higher than the ceiling applicable to developing countries, the statement said.
The most trade-distorting form of farm subsidies is known in WTO parlance as Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) or ‘Amber Box’ support, it said, adding that “Developed countries have more than 90% of global AMS entitlements amounting to nearly $160 billion. Most of the developing countries, including India and China, do not have AMS entitlements.”Elimination of AMS, India and China believe, should be the starting point of reforms rather than seeking reduction of subsidies by developing countries, some of which like India provide a subsistence amount of about $260 per farmer per annum compared to over 100 times more in some developed countries, the statement said.