Agricultural Products: Overseas Trade

(asked on 16th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what understanding they have reached with the EU on sharing out the EU allowance for providing domestic support to agriculture, known as the Aggregate Measurement of Support.


This question was answered on 26th October 2017

In preparation for the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, the UK Government and the European Commission have set out a number of proposals for future global trading arrangements in a joint letter to World Trade Organization (WTO) members.

The UK and EU Commission have proposed how they will separate the UK’s trading commitments to other WTO members from the EU’s. The UK’s current trading commitments to other WTO members, such as the tariffs it sets on goods they export to the UK, are applied through the EU’s schedules of commitments. As we leave the EU these will have to be set out separately for the UK. The proposals in the letter cover how the UK’s commitments, including on domestic agricultural support, should be calculated.

The Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) is the element of domestic support to agriculture which is treated as trade-distorting according to WTO rules, and is therefore subject to limits on what amount is allowable. The EU’s current commitment originated in 1994 reflecting how subsidies were used by the then EEC, including in the UK. As the EU has expanded, this limit has also expanded to have the commitments made by the new EU members added to it. As the UK leaves the EU, we are proposing to take the commitment relevant to the UK with us. The amount we have proposed to take is worked out by going back to original calculations made for the EEC in 1994 and establishing the portion relevant to the UK at the time.

The UK and the EU are committed to engaging with the WTO Membership in a spirit of cooperation, inclusiveness and openness on these matters over the course of the coming weeks and months.

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