[USFT] WTO decision: Cotton

[Heather L. Hanson]

Hello All!

Matt Warning asked me to make sure that everyone is aware of the latest 
development regarding US cotton subsidies. Visit 
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/wto_cotton_rulingfor
 the latest news.

Here is an excerpt from the NY Times (for full article follow link below)

"Activists say U.S. policy costs cotton producers in poor African states such 
as Benin and Chad, where cotton is a vital crop, hundreds of millions of 
dollars a year because subsidies drive down world prices."

Benin's WTO ambassador, Samuel Amehou, welcomed the ruling. ``It confirms that 
these subsidies are not fair and must be phased out in a very, very short 
time,'' he told Reuters.

``We are going to push now that the U.S. has to really move forward in the 
discussion of phasing out subsidies which are distorting the international 
market,'' he said in Kenya.

According to Oxfam, the United States spends more on propping up its 25,000 
cotton farmers than it does in aid to the whole of Africa in a year.

In the politically charged case, Brazil successfully argued that the United 
States had exceeded subsidy ceilings with its cotton support programs and its 
use of export credits was also a violation of WTO rules."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-trade-wto-cotton.html?ex=1110603600&en=601b340d542d7cd3&ei=5070