Under the limit

U.S. agricultural support payments are well below the World Trade Organization limits for trade distorting subsidies, the USDA is reporting.

From a news release:

WASHINGTON, October 4, 2007 - Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner today announced that the United States has submitted its domestic support notifications to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the years of 2002-2005.
"The United States has an obligation to notify the WTO about its agricultural domestic subsidies," said Conner. "In our notification, we have informed the WTO that U.S. domestic trade-distorting support level remains below our $19.1 billion ceiling, demonstrating that the United States is in full compliance with our WTO commitments. We look forward to continuing to work with our WTO trading partners in broadening market access for all member nations."
The $19.1 billion ceiling applies to amber box support, which is a classification of payments in the WTO. Amber box support is one part of the overall trade distorting subsidy level. The current ceiling for overall trade distorting support in the U.S. is $48 billion under WTO commitments.
Amber box support includes payments linked to production or prices, and other trade-distorting support that became subject to negotiated limits under the Uruguay Round Agriculture Agreement.
Support that is classified as green box in the WTO includes major outlays for domestic food assistance, conservation programs and research. Green box support is provided under programs that are not subject to WTO limits because they do not distort trade, or do so only minimally.
The United States last notified the WTO of its domestic support levels in March 2004 for the years 2000-2001. Below is a summary of the newly reported U.S. domestic support levels.
($US billion)
Item 2002 2003 2004 2005
Amber Box $9.6 $6.9 $11.6 $12.9
Amber Box Limit (WTO ceiling) $19.1 $19.1 $19.1 $19.1
Green box - No Limit $58.3 $64.1 $67.4 $71.8