Govt to maintain agriculture support when Russia joins WTO
BARNAUL. March 2 (Interfax) - Government support for the Russian agriculture industry will total $5.6 billion in 2012 and after Russia joins the WTO it will not seriously change, Sergei Sukhov, the director of the Agriculture Ministry's agriculture market and infrastructure development department, said at the Winter Grain Conference in Belokurikha, Altai territory, on Friday.
"By 2018 during the process of accession to the WTO, state support for agriculture within the yellow basket [WTO restricted support] should come down to $4.4 billion and then remain at that level. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that it is not all the support, just the measures that are restricted upon accession to the WTO," Sukhov said.
The Agriculture Ministry is trying to move the support measures that are in the yellow basket to the green basket, he said.
"If we look at 2012, then all the support from all budgets is $5.6 billion. If we remove the support within the yellow basket, by our estimates it is around $3.8 billion. That is just budget support. Accordingly, we have a certain margin for an increase in support. And joining the WTO will not cause serious changes," Sukhov said.
Two key criteria have been determined for measures within the green basket: they must be measures implemented as part of government programs and they should not be used to finance general services, for the creation of reserves and to ensure food safety and also they should not involve direct payments.
The Winter Grain Conference is organized by the Altai territorial administration, LLC ProZerno, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), the Altai Union of Grain Producers, CJSC Altai Yarmarka and LLC AltaiAgroExpo.
Interfax-Siberia is the information partner for the Winter Grain Conference.
