Wto Agreement On Agriculture Is Based On

2. In accordance with the Mid-term Review Agreement, according to which State measures of direct or indirect support for the promotion of agricultural and rural development are an integral part of the development programmes of developing countries, investment aid generally available for agriculture in developing countries and aid for agricultural inputs generally granted to low-income producers or producers with low developing resources: countries are exempt from domestic support. t reduction obligations that would otherwise apply to these measures, such as.B domestic support to producers in developing countries, in order to promote the diversification of illicit drug cultivation. It is not necessary to include domestic support that meets the criteria of this paragraph in the calculation of the current total amount of a Member`s AmS. At the 2013 WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia, ministers also agreed on a range of agriculture-related issues. Although agriculture has always been covered by the GATT, before the WTO there were several important differences in the rules that applied to primary agricultural products compared to industrial products. The GATT 1947 allowed countries to use export subsidies for agricultural precursors, while export subsidies for industrial products were prohibited. The only conditions were that agricultural export subsidies should not be used to cover more than a fair share of world exports of the product concerned (Article XVI(3) of the GATT). GATT rules also allowed countries to apply import restrictions (e.B under certain conditions. Import quotas), in particular where such restrictions were necessary to enforce measures to effectively limit domestic production (Article XI(2)(c) of the GATT). This exception was also subject to the condition that a minimum proportion of imports in domestic production was as large as possible. Introduction to trade in agricultural products in the WTO Links to the agricultural part of the WTO Guide „Understanding the WTO“ In the period following the 1986 GATT Ministerial Conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, agricultural lobbies in industrialized countries strongly opposed compromises in the field of agriculture.

In this context, the idea of exempting „trade-neutral“ production and subsidies from WTO obligations was first proposed by the US in 1987 and quickly repeated by the EU. [2] By guaranteeing farmers continued support, it has also neutralised resistance. In exchange for the inclusion of agriculture in WTO disciplines and a commitment to reduce trade-distorting subsidies in the future, developed countries would be allowed to maintain subsidies that result in „minimal trade distortions“ in order to achieve various public policy objectives. [1] The agreement has been criticized by civil society groups for reducing tariff protection for smallholder farmers, a major source of income in developing countries, while allowing rich countries to further subsidize domestic agriculture. .