Editing Agricultural policy (section)

== World Trade Organization actions ==
{{main|Agreement on Agriculture}}
In April 2004 the [[World Trade Organization]] (WTO) ruled that 3 billion dollars in US cotton subsidies violate trade agreements and that almost 50% of EU sugar exports are illegal. In 1997–2003, US cotton exports were subsidized by an average of 48%.<ref>{{Cite press release |url=http://www.iatp.org/iatp/library/admin/uploadedfiles/Agriculture_Export_Dumping_Booms_During_WTOs_F.pdf |title=Agriculture Export Dumping Booms During WTO's First Decade: U.S. Farm Bills Increase Dumping Trend |access-date=2005-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050624051415/http://www.iatp.org/iatp/library/admin/uploadedfiles/Agriculture_Export_Dumping_Booms_During_WTOs_F.pdf |archive-date=2005-06-24 |website=The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy}}</ref><!--Corn subsidies in the US have been indicted as a major cause of [[obesity]]; subsidized and consequently cheaper [[corn syrup]] is often used instead of plain [[sugar]] to sweeten processed foods. I don't believe that either, it may be cheaper or dearer but people want sweet whatever the cost[[User:Sandpiper|Sandpiper]]--> The WTO has extracted commitments from the [[Philippines]] government, making it lower import barriers to half their present levels over a span of six years, and allowing in drastically increased competition from the industrialised and heavily subsidised farming systems of North America and Europe. A recent [[Oxfam]] report estimated that average household incomes of [[maize]] farmers will be reduced by as much as 30% over the six years as cheap imports from the US drive down prices in the local markets. The report estimates that in the absence of trade restrictions, US subsidised maize could be marketed at less than half the price of maize grown on the Philippine [[island]] of [[Mindanao]]; and that the livelihoods of up to half a million Filipino maize farmers (out of the total 1.2 million) are under immediate threat.