Final Bound Total Aggregate Measurement of Support (FBTAMS)

Subject – Agriculture

Context – ‘Rich nations must end subsidy entitlements’

Concept –

India has submitted a fresh paper at the on-going WTO negotiations on agriculture demanding that special subsidy entitlements enjoyed by 32 developed countries must be eliminated first before any other country takes on any commitments.
The special entitlements, known as the Final Bound Total Aggregate Measurement of Support (FBTAMS), allows most developed nations, and a very small number of developing countries, flexibilities to breach prescribed domestic subsidy levels (fixed at 5 per cent of value of produce for rich countries) and also concentrate the support in just a few products.
A country’s FBTAMS is derived from the level of support provided during 1986−88, with a few exceptions for countries that joined the WTO after 1995.
The G-33 Group (a group of developing and least-developed members) and the ACP group (members from African, Caribbean and Pacific regions), too, stressed that eliminating FBTAMS is their first priority in domestic support negotiations.