[20141022]IF00055_WTO关于国内支持农业的规定.pdf

October 22, 2014 WTO Disciplines of Domestic Support for Agriculture Trade is critical to the U.S. agricultural sectorexports account for about 20% of total U.S. agricultural production. Some commodities, such as cotton, wheat, and soybeans, have export shares of nearly 50% or greater. As a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States has committed to abide by WTO rules and disciplines, including those that govern domestic farm policy. WTO Disciplines of Domestic Support A farm support program can violate WTO commitments in two principal waysfirst, by exceeding spending limits of certain market-distorting programs, and second, by generating distortions that spill over into the international marketplace and cause significant adverse effects. The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) The WTOs AoA spells out the rules for countries to determine whether their policies for any given year are potentially trade-distorting, how to calculate the costs of any distortion, and how to report those costs to the WTO in a public and transparent manner. By leaving no constraint on spending in the green box while imposing limits on AMS spending, the WTO encourages countries to design th