Back
Sep 15, 2016
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced this week that it is filing a formal request with the World Trade Organization (WTO) for consultations with China over the subsidies the country provides for wheat, rice and corn production.
The complaint focuses on China’s market price support to these commodities, which are far above China’s bound WTO Aggregate Measure of Support (AMS) levels for these commodities. Under the terms of China’s accession to the WTO, the amount of amber-box or trade-distorting support that China can provide to each of these commodities cannot exceed 8.5 percent of the value of production of each commodity.
The request for consultations under the WTO triggers what is likely to be about a 60 day process for this request to be accepted or rejected by China. If rejected, the U.S. then could request a dispute settlement panel to be formed to consider the complaint. The dispute settlement panel process could take one to two years to complete.
