price support
- noun
- Specialized
- The charges alleged that the Government of Saskatchewan had been encouraged by potash producers to establish a prorationing and price support arrangement for the Canada-U.S. potash market.
- Community-wide price support
So absent a crisis that's not going to change agricultural price supports.
- So absent a crisis that's not going to change agricultural price supports.
Examples
-
The U.S. government has reduced price supports for agriculture, pressed other countries to do likewise, and actively promoted biotechnology through such measures as extended patent protection.
Academic text (1999) -
The United States held that the lavish price supports of the Community Agriculture Plan had to be curbed.
Academic text (1992) -
As I recall, the chain eventually won the case and the milk price support system collapsed.
Blog text (12) -
Such measures could also be invoked in agricultural trade if used in conjunction with a domestic price support program.
Academic text (1994) -
On further research, I discovered that the USDA also has price supports for sugar beets and, it appears, domestically produced cane sugar.
Blog text (5) -
The tobacco buyout program abolished government price supports and production controls for tobacco and pays farmers to stop growing the crop.
Academic text (2011) -
Here, politically sophisticated and well-organized farmers use their influence to demand commodity price supports, trade protection, and generous input subsidies—with damaging environmental results.
Academic text (1994) -
Pursuant to special treaty provisions, the Community has also adopted and implemented a common agricultural policy under which Community-wide price supports are paid to Community farmers and common external levies are imposed on foreign imports.
Academic text (1993) -
Concordant with NAFTA, the Mexican government had agreed to drop all protective tariffs and taxes on agrarian goods, with price supports to farmers ultimately disappearing by 2008.
Academic text (2008) -
The government introduced price support policies to ensure that farmers receive a consistent income for their crops.
Synonyms
Money that a government gives to a business or industry to help keep prices low
An official minimum amount sellers can accept for a good or service
How Strong
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'price support' is compositionally built from 'price' (the amount paid) and 'support' (assistance), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to assistance related to prices. However, the precise institutional sense — a government policy or subsidy to keep prices at a minimum level — is somewhat technical and not fully predictable from the parts alone, making it only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The phrase price support comes from the image of a beam holding something up: price is what could fall and support is the beam that stops it. So when a government gives money or rules to 'keep the price up', we call that price support.