GENEVA: The World Trade Organisation on Thursday sided with Washington in a dispute it filed three years ago over “unfair” Chinese subsidies to producers of wheat and rice.
Back in 2016, the United States alleged that China doled out $100 billion in “market price support” for wheat and rice as well as corn production, above levels agreed at the Geneva-based WTO.
A panel established by the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body to rule on the matter found on Thursday that the grain subsidies provided by Beijing exceeded the accepted level, and that China had “acted inconsistently with its obligations” under international trade rules.
The experts said they had found that each year from 2012 to 2015, China’s market price support for wheat, Indica rice and Japonica rice “exceeded its 8.5 per cent de minimis level of support for each of these products.”
The WTO panel said it had not considered whether China had also exceeded the acceptable subsidies for corn producers, since it found China had removed the challenged subsidy before the US launched its complaint. Both sides have up to 60 days to appeal Thursday’s ruling.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue hailed the ruling in a statement as a “significant victory for US agriculture that will help American farmers compete on a more level playing field”.
