Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)

  • The WTO Agreement on Agriculture, which came into force in 1995, represents a significant step towards reforming agricultural trade and making it fairer and more competitive. The Agriculture Committee oversees implementation of the Agreement. Members continue to conduct negotiations for further reform.
  • In 2015, they adopted a historic decision to abolish agricultural export subsidies and to set rules for other forms of farm export support.
  • AoA fixes the market price support that countries can provide to each crop. For developing countries like India, the market price support for a crop cannot exceed 10 percent of the total value of its production.
  • AoA gives the freedom to the WTO members to calculate their market price support using any currency; the tacit understanding is that the data presented by a country must be consistent.
  • AoA does not allow India to use direct export subsidies, but subsidies for reducing the costs of marketing exports of agricultural products and for internal transport and freight charges on export shipments can be provided.

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