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House Members want WTO complaint against India for rice, wheat subsidies
Members of the U.S House have followed the Senate in asking Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Trade Representative Katherine Tai to file a complaint at the World Trade Organization against India for domestically supporting rice and wheat production.
CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers Chandler Goule says they’re supportive of the letter. “But what is even more important is we need to keep these bad actors like India and China in line. That was the main reason they were allowed into the WTO but yet they seem to continue to defy those international precedents.”
Twenty-eight members of the U.S. House sent a letter last week to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Last month, Republican Senator John Boozman of Arkansas led a parallel letter in the Senate.
Goule says the India’s actions are costing rice growers $71 million and wheat growers $516 million over the next six years. “When you look at the way input prices are going up and the increase cost of production and operation continue to go up, every penny always matters, but even more crucially as we are seeing prices go up.”
The House letter says China and India are repeat offenders and while the administration has continually pressed India at the WTO, there have been no results.
