Domestic Supports. 1. The Parties recognize that domestic support measures may be of crucial importance to their agriculture sectors, but it may also distort trade and affect production. In this sense the Parties shall apply domestic supports in accordance with the Agreement on Agriculture of the WTO, and any other successor agreements to which the Parties are party. Where a Party decides to support its agriculture producers, it shall endeavor to work toward the domestic support policy that:
Domestic Supports. The logic of the system on which the negotiations regarding domestic supports are based is questionable. Subsidies are divided into "strongly", "less", and "minimally" trade-distorting (Amber Box, Blue Box, Green Box). With the smallest of adjustments in the legal basis agricultural subsidies are shifted from a box that is problematic in trade policy terms into an allegedly less problematic box. This does not substantially reduce dumping and it does not focus subsidies towards the support of a socially and environmentally benign farming sector. Criteria are not assessed as to their possible effect of distorting competition or their contribution to dumping or to sustainable rural development.
