United States Called to Answer Potential WTO Abuses

(GENEVA, SWITZERLAND) Seven trading nations are calling out the United States regarding the second round of the Market Facilitation Program, also known as MFP. In 2018, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced a package to help farmers and ranchers who had been negatively affected by unfair retaliatory tariffs – or more specifically har caused by China due to a loss of market opportunity. Perdue said in April that he did not expect any additional MFP payments moving ahead, but just recently, the President announce another $16 billion to assist the agriculture industry. With that, Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, New Zealand, and Ukraine have all brought questions to the U.S. to be addressed on June 25th. The underlying question appears to be how will the money be distributed, will it affect planting decisions, and will it surpass the amount the U.S. can pay its farmers under WTO requirements.