EU trade distorting farm support hit record low in 2010/11, figures show

摘要

The EU's trade distorting farm subsidies were lower in the 2010/11 marketing year than in any other year on record, according to EU figures recently submitted to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).According to the EU's figures, trade distorting domestic support payments fell to around ?11 billion in 2010/11, an all-time low, as the EU continued its move away from 'coupled' farm payments - subsidies linked to production or animal numbers.This total is around one-sixth of the level of a decade ago, when the EU began its programmes of reforms aimed at 'decoupling' subsidies from farmers' production decisions.'Amber box' payments - the WTO's classification for trade-distorting subsidies - represented ?6.5bn of the total, a mere 9% of the ceiling of ?72bn which applied under current WTO rules.