JOB/AG/137  
 
22 June 2018  
(18-3947) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Agriculture  
Special Session  Original: English  
 
 
ELIMINATION OF AMS B EYOND DE MINIMIS  TO REDUCE DISTORTION S 
IN GLOBAL AGRICULTUR AL TRADE  – SOME INCREMENTAL STE PS 
SUBMISSION BY CHINA AND INDIA  
The following joint submission,  dated 2 1 June 2018, is being circulated at the request of the  
delegations of China  and India. 
 
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1. As mentioned in the submission by China and India (JOB/AG/102), most of the developing 
Members cannot provide product -specific Amber Box support exceeding de minimis  limit. On the 
other hand, developed Members and some d eveloping Members are not constrained by the 
de minimis  limit. This has provided significant flexibilities to these Members to provide support to 
their agriculture, thereby distorting production and trade through the following: providing 
significantly high  amount of subsidies compared to the value of production of the products 
concerned; concentrating the subsidies in a few products; and shifting the products in which the 
subsidies are concentrated. J OB/AG/102 has provided considerable data establishing how  these 
flexibilities are being availed.  
2. Any meaningful attempt at reforms in agriculture subsidies must address the asymmetry 
between the developed Members  on the one hand and most of the developing Members  on the 
other hand  in their respective entitlemen ts to AMS beyond de minimis  and the flexibility to provide 
high product -specific support. While eliminating the AMS beyond de minimis  entitlements of WTO 
Members must remain a long -term objective and a pre -requisite for consideration of other reforms 
in domestic support negotiations, in the interim, a ceiling and reduction of AMS beyond de minimis  
as product -specific support would be th e most important and incremental first step in the reform 
process for establishing a fair and market -oriented agricultural trading system.  
3. With the objectives of reducing the distortions in agriculture trade and asymmetries in the 
Agreement on Agriculture , we propose the following incremental steps of reducing the product -
specific AMS beyond de minimis  with the aim of its elimination:  
a. Step 1: A base level of product -specific AMS beyond de minimis  expressed as a 
percentage of the value of production of the product in question will be established 
for each of the agriculture products of the developed Members, based on the average 
of the product -specific AMS that remained beyond de minimis  in the domestic 
support notifications of the most recent three years fil ed till December 2018. 
Product -specific AMS which are below de minimis  in base period, shall not exceed 
de minimis  level for the products concerned, starting from the first day of 2019.  
b. Step 2: Developed Members shall reduce the product -specific AMS beyond  
de minimis  of the concerned agricultural products with more than 10% product -
specific AMS by half of the difference between the base level and 10%  in 202x, 
starting the reduction on the first day of 2019, with equal annual steps.  
c. Step 3: Developed Members shall reduce the product -specific AMS beyond 
de minimis  of the concerned agricultural product with more than 10% product -
specific  AMSto 10% on the first day of 202y, with equal annual steps.  JOB/AG/137  
 
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  d. Step 4: Developed Members shall reduce  the product -specific AMS beyond 
de minimis  of the concerned agricultural product with more than 5% product -specific 
AMS to 5% on the first day of 202z, with equal annual steps.  
e. For developing Members with product -specific AMS beyond de minimis  of the 
concerned agricultural product s, discipline  should be established by WTO Members 
with special and differential treatment.  
f. Each WTO Member with AMS entitlements beyond de minimis  shall annually notify 
the Committee on Agriculture the product -specific AMS beyon d de minimis  and the 
value of production of the concerned agricultural product in sufficient detail to 
monitor the compliance with its obligations on product -specific AMS.  
g. Work programme : Members agree to a work programme to thereafter start 
negotiations on further disciplines on domestic support .  
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