India, China jointly propose removal of US, EU farm subsidies

China and India have jointly proposed the elimination of $160 billion of trade-distorting farm subsidies in the US, European Union and other wealthy nations, a move that has come as a game changer in global farm trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization, say trade envoys familiar with the development.

As the WTO’s 164 members prepare for the crucial eleventh ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires starting on 10 December, China and India have turned the tables by calling for the elimination of what is called the Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) or “the most trade distorting element in the global trade in agriculture.”

In the proposal, floated last month, the two largest developing countries argued that AMS have to be eliminated before any other reform in the global farm trade can be taken up for consideration. The proposal suggested that the US, the EU, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and Norway continued to distort global farm trade by safeguarding their exclusive entitlements on AMS which they had secured in the previous Uruguay Round of trade negotiations.

Read more at Livemint (D. Ravi Kanth)