The US administration’s latest farm bill proposals designed to skirt foreign challenges to subsidies have been unveiled as World Trade Organisation talks on the liberalisation of international trade resume.
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The US Department of Agriculture plan would make subsidies safer from member challenges by countering cuts in some subsidies with increases in direct payments to farmers by US$5.5bn over a decade.
Rice, corn, and other commodities will all benefit from the proposals, already receiving the lion’s share of trade-distorting price supports. Grants based on national revenue targets would replace farmers’ price-based payments and some could opt for larger disbursements in place of marketing assistance benefits.
Critics’ charge that administration’s claims that the plan could save over US$17bn are misleading, since higher commodity prices already forecast decreased subsidies. The plan requires congressional approval to become law this fall.
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