Need to reduce agri support for WTO talks to go forward

The prospects of forward movement in WTO talks seems bleak if developed countries do not give a clear commitment to drastically reduce their support to the farm sector.

The situation became complicated when the US presented its Farm Bill 2007, designed to increase and legitimise its support under different pretexts and avoiding clarity in many areas of the proposed support. It appeared to several experts that the US has designed to shift a chunk of its support to the Green Box, which is considered not trade-distorting.

But the US proposal came under sharp criticism when Unctad India recently released a report that Green Box subsidies are equally trade-distorting. Also, G-20 criticised the US Farm Bill. The Eurpoean Union had earlier shifted a large part of its support to Green Box in its new agricultural policy.

Unctad India