Part 6: WTO Agreement on Agriculture Section 44: Regulations under section 43: limits on provision of domestic support in the United Kingdom
WTO agreements permit some forms of trade-distorting support (classified by the WTO as amber box support). Controls on amber box use provide for some WTO members, including the UK, to provide capped levels of (permitted) trade-distorting support. Section 44 gives the Secretary of State powers to set limits on levels of domestic support (for the purpose of securing compliance with obligations of the United Kingdom under the AoA).
	Subsection (1) clarifies that this subsection applies to domestic support for which a limit applies to the United Kingdom under the AoA (domestic support of the "relevant kind"). Subsection (2) provides for the possibility that the limits on domestic support under the AoA may arise through exception for certain types of support, or by specific limits on certain types of support, or by a combination of these two mechanisms (note that amber box support is ‘identified’ in the AoA as support that is not exempted under either Annex 2 or Article 6 of the AoA (see Boxes 7-10 above)).
	Subsection (3)(a) gives the Secretary of State powers to set a limit on domestic support of the relevant kind for the United Kingdom as a whole, which under power in subsection (4), may be lower than the total amount allowable to the United Kingdom under the AoA to allow for a portion of that limit to be reserved for the purposes described in subsection (8); subsection (3)(b) provides power to divide the remainder of the limit between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
	Subsection (8) sets out the matters that the Secretary of State may take into account when deciding the limits set in regulations made under subsection (3) including domestic support that may need to be given across the whole of the UK, including crisis measures, and domestic support of the relevant kind given by offshore territories where that spending counts towards the amount allowable to the United Kingdom under the AoA.