Wto Agreement On Agriculture Domestic Support

The Uruguay Round agricultural package fundamentally changed the way domestic support for agricultural producers was treated under GATT 1947. One of the main objectives was to discipline and reduce domestic aid, while leaving governments a great deal of room for manoeuvre to shape national agricultural policy given the great diversity of specific circumstances in different countries and agricultural sectors. The agreed approach also aims to ensure that specific binding commitments in the areas of market access and export competition are not undermined by domestic support measures. (b) where Part IV of a Member`s Schedule does not provide for a full SSA obligation, the Member shall not support agricultural producers beyond the de minimis stage provided for in Article 6(4). Twenty-eight members (including the EC as one) had no non-exempt domestic support during the base period and thus no reduction obligations set out in its schedules. Reduction commitments are expressed as a measure of the total amount of support (total AGIA), which includes all product-specific and non-product-specific support in a single number. Members with a total AMS must reduce base time support by 20% over 6 years (developed country members) or 13% over 10 years (developing country members). In each year of the implementation period, the current total of non-exempt measures shall not exceed the overall AIS limit set in the timetable for that year. In other words, the maximum levels of this support are linked to the WTO. (i) product-specific domestic support that would otherwise have to be included in the calculation of a Member`s current AMS if such support does not exceed 5 % of the total value of the production of an agricultural commodity of that Member in the year concerned; and during the Doha negotiations, developing countries fought to protect their interests and populations for fear of competing on the world market with strong developed and exporting economies. In many countries, large populations live in rural areas, with limited access to infrastructure, agricultural resources and few employment alternatives. As a result, these countries fear that the national rural population employed in import-related sectors will be negatively affected by further trade liberalization and will become increasingly vulnerable to market instability and increased imports if tariff barriers are removed. To preserve these countries, several mechanisms have been proposed: the Special Protection Mechanism (SSM) and the treatment of special products (SP).

2. (a) Any domestic support measure for agricultural producers, including any modification of that measure, and any subsequent measure introduced which is not demonstrated to meet the criteria set out in Annex 2 to this Agreement or which is exempt from reduction by any other provision of this Agreement shall be included in the calculation of the Member`s current total amount of AmS. The GATT 1947 originally applied to agriculture, but it was incomplete, and the signatory States (or “Contracting Parties”) excluded this sector from the scope of the principles set out in the General Agreement. During the period 1947-1994, Members were allowed to apply for export subsidies for primary agricultural products and to impose import restrictions under certain conditions, so that major agricultural raw materials face trade barriers to an unusual extent in other product sectors. .