(a) whether according to directives of WTO, Government subsidy on Agriculture has to
be reduced gradually to 10 per cent;
(b) whether subsidy provided by EU, USA and Japan to their agriculture sector is
between 40 per cent to 66 per cent;
(c) whether as a result thereof, the developed nations will be able to flood the Indian
market with their agricultural products; and
(d) if so, the remedial steps taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (SHRI HUKUMDEO NARAYAN YADAV)
(a): The provisions of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture provide for 2 categories of
domestic support, i.e., support with no or minimal distortive effect on trade on the one hand
and trade distorting support on the other hand. All non-exempt domestic support is subject
to reduction commitments. However, in accordance with the de minimis provisions of the
agreement, there is no requirement to reduce trade-distorting support (i.e. market price
support, direct production subsidies or input subsidies) in any year in which the aggregate
value of the product specific support does not exceed 10% of the value of production of the
agricultural product in question for developing countries. In addition, non-product specific
support, which is less than 10% of the value of total agricultural production, is also exempt
from reduction for developing countries. For developed countries, this percentage is 5%.
(b): As per the notifications filed by EU, USA and Japan in WTO, the total domestic
support provided by them to their agriculture sector as a percentage of their value of
production and their export subsides as a percentage of their total agricultural exports is at
Annexure.
(c)&(d): Government have put in place a suitable mechanism for monitoring the
import of sensitive items and are committed to provide adequate protection to the domestic
producers by resorting to various WTO compatible measure, which include appropriate
calibration of applied tariffs within the bound tariffs, anti-dumping and safeguard actions as
well as imposition of countervailing duties under specified circumstances as provided in
various WTO agreements.
ANNEXURE
S.No. Country/Group Marketing/ Domestic support as Export subsidy as a of countries Fiscal Year a percentage of value percentage of total of agricultural agricultural exports production
1. European Union 1997-98 48.03% 8.6%
2. Japan 1998 39.15% 0
3. USA 1997 28.59% 0.179