GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – This week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) filed its third “counter notification” on India's rice and wheat subsidies to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Committee on Agriculture. The counter notification details flaws in India’s notification methodology, which continues to obscure the real level of provided subsidies. The submission was co-sponsored by Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Ukraine, demonstrating the global impact of India’s trade-distorting subsidies.
The measure estimates that if India correctly calculated the level of support they provide to their rice farmers through domestic subsidies, the levels would be at 87.6 and 87.9 percent of the market value in 2021/22 and 2022/23, respectively. This is compared to the ten percent limit India agreed to when it joined the WTO.
USA Rice has long called on the Biden Administration, and preceding administrations, to file a dispute settlement case against India’s domestic support for rice because of the trade distorting impacts on the U.S. and the rest of the world’s markets.
In artificially stimulating rice production, India is forcing rice farmers in the U.S. and around the world to sell their crop below the actual cost of production, threatening the viability of the non-India industry and harming rural communities.
The U.S. filed the WTO Committee on Agriculture’s first ever counter notification in 2018 (see USA Rice Daily, May 10, 2018), and a second in 2023 (see USA Rice Daily, April 6, 2023), also against India’s rice and wheat subsidies, leading to India’s more regular notification of their support for rice each year since. The 2018 counter notification was submitted just by the United States while the 2023 counter notification was co-sponsored by Australia, Canada, Paraguay, Thailand, and Ukraine.
“This move comes on the heels of India’s recent actions to ease its export restrictions, flooding its surplus to the global market, and we applaud USTR on filing this third counter notification,” said Bobby Hanks, Louisiana rice miller and chair of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee. “It is important to recognize that other key governments – including developing countries – are also clearly alarmed by the growing economic damage caused by India’s behavior. Hopefully this moves the needle closer towards a dispute settlement case against India.”