Brazil subsidizes its agriculture
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Brazil's criticisms of American farm policy may be a case of the pot calling the kettle black, according to DTB Associates LLP, an international trade and agricultural legal and policy study group in the United States.
The report figures that Brazil offered growers US$64 billion in subsidized or mandated agricultural credits for the 2010/2011 crop year, up from $7.5 billion 10 years before.
Legislation is under consideration to provide $14 billion in direct farm subsidies and the rescheduling of $50 billion in farm debt.
Minimum guaranteed prices provided a $785 million benefit to wheat growers, $1.1 billion for corn growers, $908 million for rice growers and $276 million for cotton growers.
The DTB Associates study is dated September, 2011. It is being touted now by The Hand That Feeds U.S., self-described as "an educational resource for urban media on the importance of U.S. agriculture to the security and future of our country," and supported by 19 commodities and rural and agriculture advocacy groups.
It might be coincidental that federal spending on agriculture is up for discussion in the United States. Or maybe not. And isn't Brazil a member of the 19-country Cairns Group, along with Canada, lobbying for agricultural trade liberalization? BF
