OECD FARM SUBSIDIES STUDY RESULTS DETAILED

  The results of a controversial study
  of farm subsidies conducted by the Paris-based Organisation for
  Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, show Japan has the
  highest agriculture subsidies in the world, and that dairy
  farmers benefit more than any other commodity producers from
  subsidies.
      Results of the study, which has not been released by OECD
  because of objections from some countries, were provided to
  Reuters by officials of several countries on condition they not
  be identified.
      The OECD study calculates the level of farm subsidies for
  the years 1979-81 using a new measure called the producer
  subsidy equivalent, PSE.
      The study shows that on dairy products Japan's PSE, or the
  amount of aid to farmers expressed as a percentage, averaged
  83.3 pct over 1979-81, with the European Community at 68.8 pct
  and the United States 48.2 pct.
      For wheat Japan's PSE averaged 95.8 pct, the EC 28.1 and
  the U.S. 17.2. Japan's rice PSE was 68.8 pct compared to the EC
  13.6 and the U.S. 5.4 pct, the OECD calculations show.
      In coarse grains, Japan's subsidies reached 107.1 pct
  compared with 27.9 pct for the EC and 13.1 pct for the U.S.
  Japan's beef subsidy was 54.9 pct versus 52.7 pct for the EC
  and 9.5 pct for the U.S., OECD concluded.
      For sugar, Japan's PSE was 48.4 pct versus 27.9 pct in the
  EC and 13.1 pct for the U.S., the study shows.
      The OECD calculated farm subsidies for other industrial
  countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand but in most
  cases the results were much lower than for the U.S., EC and
  Japan, the sources said.
      Subsidies in Argentina and Brazil, two major developing
  country producers of commodities, were not included in the OECD
  work.
      Officials said they hope to persuade reluctant countries to
  release the study soon, perhaps coinciding with the OECD
  ministerial meeting in Paris during May.
      Some officials hope the OECD results will be used as a 
  basis for negotiations during the Uruguay round of global trade
  talks now underway in Geneva.
      British Agriculture Minister Michael Jopling during a visit
  to Washington this week endorsed the OECD work as a starting
  point for the Uruguay round negotiations on agriculture.
      He said the PSE calculations provide a tool to negotiate
  down domestic farm support levels, which are a major cause of
  the present crisis in world agriculture.
      However, the OECD study results are controversial because
  they highlight the levels of assistance to farmers, officials
  familiar with the study said.
      The U.S. Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service
  recently published a study of farm subsidies in an attempt to
  verify the OECD results and update them to 1982-84.
      In some cases the results were substantially different than
  the OECD's, in part because farm policies in both the U.S. and
  elsewhere had changed markedly by 1982-84 from the OECD base
  period of 1979-81, U.S. officials said.
      For example, the USDA study found the United States
  subsidies to corn producers were higher in 1982-84, at 25 to 49
  pct, than in the EC, at zero to nine pct.
      French Maize Producers Association president Marcel Cazale,
  citing the result of the USDA calculation for corn, told
  reporters last week that the United States subsidizes its
  farmers more than the EC.
      However, the sources said EC corn subsidies are probably
  higher than the U.S. now because of increases since 1984.
      Officials of several countries have been asked to
  contribute data to OECD so that the study can be updated to
  1985 subsidy levels, a much more relevant measure of the
  current world farm situation.
      The updated calculations, which may take several months to
  complete, are expected to show substantial increases in U.S.
  subsidy levels for sugar because the U.S. imposed restrictive
  import quotas in 1982 as aid to the domestic industry.
      U.S. subsidy levels also are increased by the 1985 farm
  bill, which sharply boosted government deficiency payments to
  grain farmers and applied a marketing loan for rice, officials
  added.
  

