New Delhi: India and China jointly submitted a proposal to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) calling for the elimination, by developed countries, of the most trade-distorting form of farm subsidies, known in WTO parlance as Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) or ‘Amber Box’ support as a prerequisite for consideration of other reforms in domestic support negotiations.
This is an important proposal by India and China in view of the ongoing negotiations for the upcoming 11th Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held in Buenos Aires in December 2017.
It counters the efforts by some countries to target the subsidies of the developing countries while letting the developed countries retain their huge farm subsidies.
According to a Commerce Ministry statement issued here today, the Proposal was submitted on July 18, 2017.
The joint paper reveals that developed countries, including the US, the EU and Canada, have been consistently providing trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers at levels much higher than the ceiling applicable to developing countries.
