US Again Questions India's WTO Domestic Ag Support Notifications

The U.S. and Canada are raising more questions about India's World Trade Organization (WTO) notifications for domestic support for agricultural products. The two countries delivered what is known as a counter notification on supports by India for pulse crops. The action was submitted to the WTO's Committee on Agriculture (COA) by the U.S. and Canada, according to a joint announcement from U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer and USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue. This is the third time the U.S. has issued counter notifications, having done so twice last year on India's market price support (MPS) notifications for crops – one on India's notification for cotton and another challenging those notifications on rice and wheat. Meanwhile, Australia has also issued a counter notification over India's MPS for sugarcane. India "substantially underreported its market price support for chickpeas, pigeon peas, black matpe, mung beans and lentils," Lighthizer and Perdue said, based on U.S. calculations. The U.S. alleged that when support for the crops is calculated according to WTO COA methodology "India’s market price support for each of these pulses far exceeded its allowable levels of trade-distorting domestic support." For India, MPS is bound by the "de minimis" limit of 10% of total production allowed for developing countries.