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COA Meeting start date 30/10/2019
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The Indian government announced on 28 August 2019 that it would introduce an export subsidy of $ 146.1 per tonne. A budget of 62.68 billion rupees was approved for the export of up to 6 million tonnes during the 2019/20 marketing year. The announcement also stated that this subsidy did not violate WTO rules.
a. If the export subsidy is not to violate WTO rules, India is considered to conform to Article 9.4 of the Agreement on Agriculture. Can India please indicate how it has calculated and arrived at this level of subsidies including the transport cost in question as well as other the other elements taken into consideration.
b. Can India explain how it sees the increasing subsidy level and increasing quantity of sugar exports to be subsidised to be in line with Nairobi Ministerial Decision paragraphs 9, 10 and 11. In particular how does India see the 2019/20 export programme as respecting paragraph 10:"Members shall seek not to raise their export subsidies beyond the average level of the past five years on a product basis".
c. Can India indicate the quantity of sugar exported during the 2018/19 marketing year (total and with subsidies) and the total amount spent on subsidy for these exports (by both national and provincial authorities).
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Answer Full Text

a. and b. The export subsidy to be provided to the sugar mills have been calculated by taking into account the expenses incurred by them on marketing costs (including handling, upgrading and other processing costs) and costs of international and internal transport and freight charges and is therefore consistent with the Nairobi Ministerial Decision.

c. India will provide an answer to this question in due course.
Follow-up comments
Colombia and Ukraine registered interest in India's domestic and export policies on sugar. Australia and Brazil noted that some of the questions raised with regards to India's sugar policies were currently part of an on-going WTO dispute and would continue to follow related developments closely.
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Question Summary
India's sugar policies
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