The trend in agricultural support in the EU is downwards while that in the US is in the opposite direction as evidenced by the budget top-up in 1998 and 1999 of about $15,000m. The US agricultural budget under discussion in 1999 was for an amount of over $60,000 million, whereas the EU budget is only about $40,000 million. This comparison is all the more significant when one considers that the EU has over 7m farmers while the US has less than 2m.In 1995, the first year of the Uruguay Round agreement, the subsidy for US soya producers was $800m, while in 1998 it was $1800m - a 125% increase in support is hardly in keeping with the spirit of the last WTO agreement.