USDA Starts Making Safety Net, CRP Payments

USDA is in the process of making some $9.6 billion in payments to eligible producers participating in the 2014 Farm Bill safety net programs for commodities and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).USDA said that $8 billion will go to eligible producers under the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Ag Risk Coverage (ARC) programs for 2016 crops. In October 2016, USDA said it was making $7 billion in payments to ARC and PLC participants for 2015 crops.USDA has announced that eligible 2016-crop wheat producers would receive a PLC payment of $1.61 per bushel with oats producers to receive 34 cents per bushel. USDA also announced that corn producers would receive PLC payments based on 34 cents per bushel, $1.16 per bushel for grain sorghum and 3.35 cents per pound for canola producers. Eligible 2016-crop peanut producers are also able to receive a payment of 7.05 cents per pound.US Leads Growing Opposition to EU-UK WTO Tariff Rate Quota PlanOpposition to a reported EU-UK agreement on how agricultural import quotas should be carved up post-Brexit is strengthening with a number of key agricultural trade partners, including the U.S., Brazil and Canada, claiming the approach is not consistent with the principle of leaving other World Trade Organization (WTO) members “no worse off”.In a jointly signed letter, dated September 26, addressed to the UK’s WTO representative Julian Braithwaite and his EU counterpart Marc Vanheukelen, the representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand, the U.S. and Uruguay, said they could not accept a solution based on splitting Tariff Rate Quotas based on historical averages.“We would like to record that such an outcome would not be consistent with the principle of leaving other World Trade Organization members no worse off, nor fully honor the existing TRQ access commitments,” it said. “Thus we cannot accept such an agreement.”