OECD: Countries not reducing market-distorting ag subsidies

Countries have largely stopped reducing market-distorting agricultural subsidies, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said today in its annual report monitoring and evaluating agricultural policies.

OECD has long campaigned against production-related subsidies in favor of general subsidies that do not affect planting decisions and in favor of programs to address environmental and rural development problems.

The report covers the 36 OECD countries, the five non-OECD European Union member states, and 12 emerging economies. It uses a comprehensive system of measuring and classifying support to agriculture — the Producer and Consumer Support Estimates (PSEs and CSEs), the General Services Support Estimate (GSSE) and related indicators — to address the complex nature of agricultural policy.

There are also comprehensive country chapters and a statistical annex containing detailed background tables with indicators of agricultural support in electronic form at the publication website.

–The Hagstrom Report