Lok Sabha Question No. 888 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-07-23
Subject: Issue of Agricultural Subsidies at WTO
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: K. MARAGATHAM

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 888 TO BE ANSWERED ON 23 rd  JULY,2018

## ISSUE OF AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES AT WTO

## 888.   SHRIMATI K. MARAGATHAM:

Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY ( वाͨणÏय एवं उɮयोग मंğी ) be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  United  States  has  alleged  that  India  is  supporting  its  rice  and  wheat farmers with payments that are far higher than the amounts allowed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO);
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (c) whether India has made reform of agricultural subsidies a major negotiating issue at the WTO in the past five years; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

okf.kT; ,oa m|ksx ea=ky; esa jkT; ea=h ¼Jh lh- vkj- pkS/kjh½

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI C. R. CHAUDHARY)

(a)  &  (b):  The  United  States  has,  in  May  2018,  submitted  a  communication  under provisions of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) on certain measures of India providing  Market  Price  Support  (MPS)  to  wheat  and  rice  for  the  years  2010-11  to 2013-14 . In this communication, the US has claimed that India has under-reported its domestic support provided for wheat and rice and breached its commitments under the WTO AoA.  The calculations  done by  them,  to  support  this  claim  is  based,  as  per them,  on  information  available  in  the  public  domain  and  news  reports.The  US  has, however,  clarified that the purpose  of the counter  notification is to facilitate conversation and improve transparency.

India has refuted the calculations done in the US counter notifications as being flawed on technical grounds and asserted that the methodology used by India in its domestic support  notifications  is  in  accordance  with  the  rules  under  the  Agreement  on Agriculture.

(c)  &  (d):  India  has  been  of  the  view  that  the  Agreement  on  Agriculture  provides considerable space and flexibility to a few developed members to provide huge trade distorting  subsidies  and  further,  to  concentrate  these  subsidies  on  a  few  products without  any  limits.  These  few  members  have  been  trying  to  shift  the  focus  of negotiations  in  the  WTO  from  reducing  and  capping  such  large  trade  distorting subsidies by the rich countries to ensuring that developing countries such as India and China reduce or cap their agricultural subsidies. India is concerned at this shift in the discussion  on  domestic  support  and  has,  at  various  fora,  held  that  the  agriculture negotiations  are  meant  to  continue  the  reform  process  and  not  to  preserve  the subsidies of a few while taking away all the flexibilities from developing countries in an already unequal playing field. India has maintained that any meaningful reform in agriculture  must  first  seek  to  reduce  the  disproportionately  large  subsidies  of  the developed countries.India and China have also made a joint submission in the WTO proposing  the  elimination  of  AMS  (Aggregate  Measurement  of  Support),  available mostly to developed countries, which is the most trade-distorting form of agricultural domestic support.

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