Canada: Dairy trade policy

WTO members questioned Canada on a recent agreement between Canadian dairy farmers and processors to allow Canadian processors to buy domestic milk ingredients at lower prices. The nationwide pricing strategy aims to promote the use of Canadian domestic ingredients.

Australia, New Zealand and the United States are concerned that they could lose their market share in the ultra-filtered milk industry. Canada said the decision to create a dairy ingredient strategy was not a government policy and was an industry-driven initiative. The details of this new initiative remain to be finalized, Canada said. 

Canada:Tariff rate quota for cheese

Norway, Switzerland, New Zealand and the United States renewed concerns about Canada’s allocation of its tariff rate quota for cheese, a policy tool that establishes a low or zero duty for imports inside a certain quota. Imports exceeding the quota volume usually face a high duty. Canada has allegedly allocated more than 800 tons of its cheese tariff quota to the European Union as part of a Canada-EU free trade agreement, resulting in lower market access for non-EU exporters.

Canada said it would continue to administer its WTO tariff rate quota for cheese under the current practice, which it believes conforms with its WTO obligations.

Canada: Wine sale policy

Canada responded to questions about a new wine sale policy in Ontario which would authorize up to 70 grocery stores to sell both imported and domestic wines, with a certain display space reserved for wine from small wineries. The policy aims to support small producers, promote fairness and prevent market disruption.

Australia, the EU and New Zealand said that although they understood the need to protect small wineries, they were concerned that the definition Canada uses for small wineries would disadvantage imported wine.

India: Export subsidies programme

India confirmed that it had discontinued its export assistance programme, and had withdrawn the Minimum Indicative Export Quota scheme to support sugar exports since May 2016. It assured members that no subsidy had been provided on exports under the scheme. In response to the US request for historic data, India said it intended to notify the relevant information on its export subsidies.

Pakistan: Export subsidies for sugar

The EU questioned Pakistan about a subsidy programme to support sugar exports, which the EU said contradicted the WTO decision to eliminate export subsidies. Pakistan said the programme was a one-time measure to address market disruptions and it was no longer operational. Pakistan added that it would notify the measure to the WTO when it had collected all the relevant data.

Thailand: Export of rice from government stocks

Thailand’s policy to export stockpiled rice continued to attract attention. Thailand used to run a government programme to purchase rice from farmers at supported prices, leaving the country with a large inventory of rice in its warehouses. Thailand recently announced plans to release rice stocks to local traders for domestic sales or exports.

The EU, the US, Canada, Pakistan and Senegal signalled their interest in the policy move and its potential trade impact. They urged Thailand to provide more information on rice exports from government stocks.

United States: Global Food Security Act & cotton ginning support

India asked the US to provide more information on the recently enacted Global Food Security Act and a support programme for cotton ginning. The US said the Global Food Security Act will not alter US Department of Agriculture’s food assistance programmes, adding that the food aid provided by the United States was not considered an export subsidy.

The US also informed members about its new cotton ginning cost share programme announced in June 2016, which provided a one-time cost share payment based on a producer’s 2015 cotton acreage multiplied by average ginning cost. The US said it would include the programme in its domestic support notifications.

China: Outstanding notifications

The US questioned China on its timeline to provide more recent domestic support notifications. China's last notification on domestic support dates back to 2010.

Japan, the EU and Canada also expressed similar concerns. China said the notification preparation is under way, and indicated that coordination among agencies and local authorities could be challenging for large countries like China.

The questions discussed at the meeting are listed in document G/AG/W/156, and can be accessed in the Agriculture Information Management System database.

 

Update on Nairobi decision implementation

In his update, the Committee's chairperson, Garth Ehrhardt of Canada, noted that Director-General Roberto Azevêdo had reported at the last General Council on 27 July on his conversations with the 16 members who had scheduled export subsidies entitlements for agricultural products. These members had all indicated during these consultations that they would revise their schedules to eliminate those entitlements, pursuant to the Nairobi Decision on Export Competition.

 

Chairperson: Mr Garth Ehrhardt (Canada)
Next meeting: 9-10 November 2016

 

On the website:

• www.wto.org/agriculture
• Agriculture news archives
• Explanation in “Understanding the WTO”
• Notifications and other documents can be found using pre-configured searches here
• Agriculture Information Management System database