Passage: Since the 1980s, US farm subsidies for rice, along with copyright and patent issues, have constituted the "major problems in U.S.-Thai trade ties". The rice subsidy was one of the primary obstacles to the negotiation of a bilateral FTA. Approximately two-thirds of Thailand's population are rice farmers, and the U.S. subsidy "severely strains U.S.-Thai relations as Bangkok finds itself unable to explain the income lost to its 35 million rice farmers". USDA-funded research to produce variants of Jasmine rice capable of growing in the US are viewed as biopiracy by many Thai rice farmers. In 2005, Thai rice farmers gathered outside the US embassy to chant a "traditional ritual to bring misfortune to enemies". Farmer protests also occurred outside the US embassy during the 2001 WTO ministerial meeting in Doha. Thai officials "sharply criticized" the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, and retaliated by joining two WTO dispute resolution cases against the US: one against anti-dumping subsidy offsets, and the Shrimp-Turtle Case. According to Oxfam, the US spends US$1.3 billion on rice subsidies annually for a crop that costs US$1.8 billion to grow, allowing the US to become the second largest global rice exporter  and dump rice at 34 percent below the cost of production. Following the election of Obama and the 2008 global financial crisis, there are Thai fears of renewed US protectionism.
How many dollars less does the US pay in subsidies for the rice than it actually costs to grow? How many dollars less is the US paying for rice than it costs to grow? How many issues are major problems for U.S.-Thai trade ties? How many more billions of dollars does it cost the US to grow rice than what it sells it for? How many more dollars does it cost to grow the roce crop than the US subsidizes? How many rice farmers are in Thailand? How many years passed between the first Thai protest outside the US embassy and the second protest outside the embassy? In what different years did Thai farmers protest at the US embassy? In what years did farmers protest outside the US Embassy? What country does the US farm subsidies cause issues with? What were the cases that the US joined about? What years did the farmers gather to protest the US? Which event happened first, election of Obama or WTO ministerial meeting in Doha? Which happened first, the WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, or the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002?