Global Trade Alert

 On 5 December 2012, the German government introduced substantial tax reliefs on insurances related to weather conditions in the agricultural sector.
Starting from 2013, farmers will be required to pay a tax of 0.03% instead of the usual 19%. According to the 24th subsidy report by the Finance Ministry, the planned budget for 2013 was 35 million EUR and 40 million EUR for the following year. No endpoint has been set for the tax relief so far.
In the GTA database the determination of whether a policy instrument discriminates against foreign commercial interests turns on whether it creates or alters the relative treatment of domestic firms versus foreign commercial interests. On this metric, the state aid proposed here is discriminatory because the state aid is not available to competing firms outside of the implementing jurisdiction.