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Mind the gap : ‘greening’ direct payments and the World Trade Organization
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Smith, Fiona (2015) Mind the gap : ‘greening’ direct payments and the World Trade Organization. In: McMahon, Joseph and Cardwell, Michael, (eds.) Research Handbook on EU Agriculture Law. Research Handbooks in European Law series . Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9781781954614
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781781954621
Abstract
A crucial element of the post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform is the ‘greening’ payment. ‘Greening’ is a compulsory part of the new direct payment scheme, accounting for 30 per cent of national ceilings. To qualify, farmers must undertake compulsory agricultural practices that are ‘beneficial for the climate and the environment’, comprising crop diversification, maintenance of existing permanent grassland and establishing an ecological focus area or putting in place ‘equivalent measures’. The payment had a controversial legislative passage, with several environmental groups questioning its pro-environmental effects and alleging that it was merely a clever way of disguising product support to European Union (EU) farmers, even before several of the provisions were watered down by the European Parliament. Despite these difficulties, throughout the process all parties assumed the ‘greening’ payment was compatible with the Green Box exemption in the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), so that it would be exempt from the EU’s domestic support reduction commitments in that Agreement. Specifically, it was understood that the payment would be decoupled income support under paragraph 6 of Annex 2 to the AoA and as such the payment had ‘no, or at most minimal trade-distorting effects or effects on production’ under paragraph 1 of the same Annex (the so-called ‘fundamental requirement’).
Item Type: | Book Item | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||
Series Name: | Research Handbooks in European Law series | ||||
Publisher: | Edward Elgar Publishing | ||||
Place of Publication: | Cheltenham, UK | ||||
ISBN: | 9781781954614 | ||||
Book Title: | Research Handbook on EU Agriculture Law | ||||
Editor: | McMahon, Joseph and Cardwell, Michael | ||||
Official Date: | 27 November 2015 | ||||
Dates: |
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Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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