U.S. notifies WTO of subsidies for 1st time in years
4 Oct 2007
The United States is notifying the World Trade Organization of its farm subsidy levels for the first time since spending for the year 2001, Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner said on Thursday, saying the United States stayed within WTO limits since at least 2002.
"This would be the first notification under 2002 farm bill," Conner told reporters at a meeting of the National Chicken Council in Washington.
U.S. spending on farm subsidies has been a central issue in the WTO's Doha round, the trade talks that have been struggling to find consensus on agricultural and industrial trade reforms since 2001.
Washington is under pressure to reduce subsidies in the round, beyond an offer it made in 2005. One point of contention in those discussions has been a lack of official data about subsidy spending; Washington had not filed that data with the WTO after its 2001 levels.
Conner said the filing "provides strong evidence to the world the U.S. proposal (in the Doha round) ... would represent real cuts, real limits on American agriculture."
"We did not breach the $19.1 billion (limit) in any of the years," Conner said, referring to the U.S. limit for "amber box" subsidies, considered the most trade-distorting.
He also maintained that direct payments the United States pays its farmers, also under scrutiny in the round, were "green box," or minimally trade distorting.
Resource: reuters.com, www.iatp.org
Released on: October 4, 2007
