Countries to Press US For More Details On Farmer Aid Plan

Several countries are signaling they will seek more information from the U.S. on the $12 billion farmer aid plan deployed by the Trump administration with an eye on how long the effort is to last, if it meets U.S. World Trade Organization commitments and if it will impact domestic agriculture sectors in other countries.Questions will be coming from New Zealand, Japan, India, the European Union, Canada and Australia, according to notices filed ahead of the Sept. 25-26 meeting.Questions from Australia will focus on when the U.S. would formally notify the WTO, how long the plan will be in effect, how the various programs will fit into WTO rules and what would trigger the second portion of the package and whether that installment would be under the same efforts as the first installment. New Zealand will seek assurances on the plan being a one-time payment and whether it would take the U.S. close to its farm subsidy cap of $19.1 billion annually.How the U.S. determined the payment formulas under the first installment of farmer aid payments totaling $4.7 billion is another point of information countries are seeking while Japan and Canada expressed concern the effort will amount to excessive support for ag production, with Canada also wanting to know if more products would be covered under the Market Facilitation Program.Further, Canada expressed concern on whether the $200 million in trade promotion efforts would be used to subsidize U.S. exports on the global market.