Farm Bill americano : Perguntas e Respostas

A Comissão Europeia publicou hoje um conjunto de Perguntas e Respostas relativas ao programa agr�cola americano (Farm Bill), formalmente aprovado anteontem pelo Presidente Bush.

Pelo interesse do conte�do do documento, publicamo-lo na �ntegra e no idioma original (ingl�s). 

Para facilidade de consulta enunciamos as perguntas com a hiperliga��o �s respectivas respostas.

Questions & Answers � US Farm Bill

• What is the US Farm Bill?

• What will it cost?

• Do we know the full implications of the Farm Bill?

• What crop subsidy measures are proposed in the Farm Bill?

• What is the impact of updating base acres and yields?

• How much will these crop subsidy programmes cost?

• What is wrong with "LDPs" and "counter-cyclical" payments?

• Why does this matter to producers in other countries?

• Are these payments not limited by WTO rules?

• What about other sectors?

• Will payment limitations be effective?

• What environmental programmes are included in the Farm bill?

• Does the EC welcome the environmental programmes?

• Is there a general increase in agricultural expenditure?

• What will happen if WTO ceilings are breached?

• How will the "counter-cyclical" payments be classified in WTO terms?

• What is the "de minimis" loophole?

• Are counter-cyclical payments "non-product specific"?

• What are the new "country-of-origin" labelling rules?

• Is the "dairy assessment" an obstacle to trade?

• What export measures are included in the Farm Bill?

• What Food Aid measures are included?

• What are the drawbacks of "monetized" of food aid?

• But surely any food going to needy people is good?

• So what if there’s a benefit for US farmers? Isn’t this a win-win scenario?

• What is the US record on "food aid"?

• What about the International School Lunch programme?

• How does US farm support compare with EU support?

• How does the US level of agricultural imports from developing countries compare to that of the EU?

• How do EU and US programmes to subsidise exports compare?