'India's Market Price Support Breaches WTO Rules: US & Argentina Raise Concerns to Global Trade Body

New Delhi: In a significant move, the United States, Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Ukraine have submitted a letter to the World Trade Organization (WTO) raising objections to India's market price support for certain agricultural goods.

The five countries claimed that India provides market price support for rice and wheat in excess of what it has reported to the global trade body. According to their submission, India's market price support appears to have been over 87% of value of production for rice (2021-22) and between 67-75% for wheat (2022-23).

"India's notifications for the years at issue appear to dramatically under-report the value of India's MPS for rice and wheat," stated a source from the US delegation. The countries expressed their concerns over what they claim is significantly higher market price support given by India.

In May this year, the same group including EU, UK, Australia and four others had raised concerns over India's input subsidies worth $48 billion in 2022-23 during discussions with global trade organizations.