Rep. Crawford Applauds Progress in Addressing India’s WTO Violations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sara Robertson (Sara.Robertson2@mail.house.gov)

Washington –  Last week, the United States and several other World Trade Organization (WTO) Members announced during WTO meetings here that they are taking an unprecedented path of action by initiating consultations with India on their trade-distorting rice subsidies. 

Current WTO rules allow governments to subsidize up to 10% of the value of commodity production; however, the Indian government continues to subsidize more than half of the value of production for several commodities, including rice and wheat. India’s lack of rule-following, and the Biden Administration’s lack of enforcement, have reshaped global agricultural production and trade channels by flooding the market with India-subsidized rice, unfairly penalizing American rice producers in export markets.

Congressman Rick Crawford (AR-01) issued to the following statement following news of this progress:

“I appreciate the efforts by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and their colleagues at the USDA for starting to address these egregious WTO violations. This announcement is a long overdue step in the right direction in combatting bad actors like India and its rice subsidies to give our nation’s agriculture producers a level playing field. The fight is far from over and I will continue to work to draw attention to these major concerns our rice producers are facing.”

Representatives Crawford and Mann led their colleagues on a letter earlier this month to President Biden, and in January to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to bring their attention to this important issue.

Click here to read the July letter.

Click here to read the January Letter.

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