In run up to WTO ministerial at Bali (December, 2013), G-33 developing countries, led by India have sought ‘flexibility to continue helping poor farmers through support prices without a limit on subsidy’. This has been promptly rejected by USA on the ground that this will tantamount to altering rules of the game. US stance was echoed by Mr Pascal Lamy, DG, WTO. The rejection is without basis! Under Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) (1995), support to poor farmers was ‘excluded’ for calculating aggregate measurement support (AMS) and deciding subsidy reduction commitments with reference to 1986. The raison de atre for this exclusion was that support to poor farmers does not have any ‘trade-distorting’ effect, whereas WTO disciplines target only those forms...
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