RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/AG/W/38
12 November 1998
(98-4528)
Committee on Agriculture Original:  English
IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES REGARDING DOMESTIC SUPPORT
Provision of Information to Support de minimis  Claims
Discussion Paper by New Zealand
Issue
1. Under paragraph 4 of Article 6 of the Agreement on Agriculture, Members are not required to
include in the calculation of their Curren t Total Aggregate Measures of Support (AMS):
(a) product-specific support which does not exceed 5 per cent (or 10 per cent for
developing countries) of the total value of production for that product;  or
(b) non-product-specific support which does not exceed 5 per cent (or 10 per cent for
developing countries) of the total value of production for all products.
2. During the Committee on Agriculture (COA) review process, Members tabling DS:4
notifications are often asked to provide value of production information for the product specific and
non-product-specific support they have claimed as being de minimis .  The importance of this issue
and the reasons Members ask questions of each other in the COA, stems from the fact that the de
minimis exemption is associated with trade distorting support measures, which would otherwise be
subject to reduction commitments.  In all cases, Members have willingly supplied this information,which allows other Members to verify the de minimis claims.
Current Practice
3. Although notification table DS:4 does not specifically include provision for the entry of data
to support de minimis  claims, many Members have already taken the initiative of including value of
production figures in support of de minimis claims in their notifications.  They have done so in a
variety of ways.  The following countries have provided value of production data as footnotes to their
domestic support notifications: Cyprus, South Africa, Hungary, Japan and the Philippines.1  T h e
United States has inserted two new columns in their DS:4 notifications between the third and fourth
columns.2  The first additional inserted column lists the value of production for each product, and the
second column contains the calculation of 5 per cent of the value of production.  Canada has also
included two additional columns in its DS:4 notification after the first four columns.3  The value of
production for each product is listed in the first new column, with the total product-specific and non-
product-specific AMS as a percentage of the value of production in the other.
                                                     
1CYP/3/Rev.1, ZAF/5, ZAF/13, HUN/10, JPN/21, PHL/10 and PHL/15.
2USA/10 and USA/17.
3CAN/17.G/AG/W/38
Page 2
Suggestion
4. To increase transparency and ease of review, and given the frequency at which Members are
asked to provide value of production information to support de minimis claims, it would helpful if this
information was included in the domestic support notifications.  It should be noted that, in preparingtheir notifications, Members need to know what the value of production is so that they can claim de
minimis support.  Therefore the provision of value of production information would not create any
additional work for the notifying Member.
5. It would appear that there are two ways in which this information could be provided in the
notification:
(a) Members could provide value of production data as footnotes in their notifications; or
(b) Members could insert two additional column s in their DS:4 notification:  one for the
support (for a particular product and non-product-specific support) and the other for
the value of production. (Members would only need to fill in these columns when
they are claiming de minimis support.)
6. Attached are mock example DS:4 notifications showing how each of the above options could
be presented.
7. It is proposed that notifying Members be free to choose which of these two options it
adopts when submitting its notification.G/AG/W/38
Page 3Supporting Table DS:4
DOMESTIC SUPPORT:  Country X
REPORTING PERIOD:  calendar year, marketing year, etc.
Calculation of the Current total Aggregate Measurement of Support
Description of basic products (including
non-product-specific AMS)Product-specific AMS (from Supporting
Tables DS:5 to DS:7 below)
($ million)Product-specific measurements of support
(from Supporting Table DS:8 below)Current total AMS
(aggregate)
($ million)
123 4
(2+3)
Wheat and Durum 43.7 de minimis10
Barley 21.3 de minimis10
Oats 10.5 de minimis10
Sheep 5.3 5.3
Non-product-specific AMS 02
Current Total AMS 5.3
1 Support does not exceed 5% of total value of production of each of these products, for the relevant year.  Under the provision of Article 6.4 of the Agreement on Agriculture, support
falling below de minimis  level need not be included in the calculation of the Current To tal AMS.  Estimated values of production are the following (in $ million):  Wheat and
Durum 4,169.5, Barley 818.4 and Oats 235.9.
2 Non-product-specific AMS is de minimis .  Current total non-product-specific suppor t equals $954.3 million and does not exceed 5% of the total value of agricultural p roduction at
current prices which equals $25,816.4 million.G/AG/W/38
Page 4
Supporting Table DS:4
DOMESTIC SUPPORT:  Country X
REPORTING PERIOD:  calendar year, marketing year, etc.
Calculation of the Current total Aggregate Measurement of Support
Description of basic
products (including non-
product-specific AMS)Product-specific AMS
(from Supporting Tables
DS:5 to DS:7 below)
($ million)Product-specific
measurements of support
(from Supporting Table
DS:8 below)Total Support
($ million)Value of production
($ million)Current total AMS
(aggregate)
1234
(2+3)56
Wheat and Durum 43.7 43.7 4,169.5 de minimis
Barley 21.3 21.3 818.4 de minimis
Oats 10.5 10.5 235.9 de minimis
Sheep 5.3 5.3 5.3
Non-product-specific AMS 954.3 25,816.4 de minimis
Current Total AMS 5.3
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