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The article discusses that various supports have been made available to agricultural sector, especially for rice under the framework of AoA WTO. The article also explore the domestic support methodology for calculating Total AMS (aggregate measure support) and de minimis for rice. Expenditure for general services has increased significantly after 1999. Most of the support under Green Box was designed for domestic food aid. Market price support for rice has continued to increase since 1999, however, de minimis level stood on average 6% p.a. in the period of 1998-2002. The implication is if the market price support for rice depends heavily on the domestic cost of paddy production and ignores the border price, this support can be beyond the de minimis level. De minimis above 10% for LDC is believed distorting the production and trade, and should go under Amber Box. |
