BBC News | Sept. 11, 2003
Several African nations have joined forces to put the issue of cotton onto the agenda of the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun. Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali are demanding wealthier countries end subsidies to farmers which they say results in them losing $250m a year in exports.
"Cotton offers us the potential and rare opportunity to integrate ourselves in the world economy," Mali's Minister of Industry and Trade, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, told delegates.
Cotton is the mainstay of economies in Central and West Africa but farmers say they cannot export crops because payments in Europe and the United States make their product less competitive.
Compensation claim
Campaigners argue that declining exports, coupled with declining world prices for cotton, mean entire communities across the region have lost their only means of survival.
The African nations estimate the amount they lose rises to $1bn when the losses of those indirectly linked to cotton are accounted for.
As well as the ending of all cotton subsidies from 2004 until 2006, they want financial compensation for the loss in revenue. "If nothing is done urgently and solidly, this could lead to the total loss of revenue for our producers, an increase in poverty and the destruction of our economic system," Benin's Minister of Trade, Fatiou Akplogan, said.
'Moral merit'
According to Oxfam, the US pays three times more in subsidies to its 25,000 cotton farmers than its budget for aid to Africa's 500 million people.
The organisation calculates that costs for producing cotton in the US are three times higher than in Burkina Faso.
But the US argues that its cotton support schemes fall within WTO limits and also points the finger at the EU and China.
"We're engaged in discussions with the four countries who are sponsoring the cotton initiative and we are looking with them at the entire situation that affects trade in cotton," Peter Allgeier, deputy US trade representative, told reporters.
China is the second-biggest subsidiser; the EU spends only $700m, but as cotton is only produced in Greece and Spain its subsidies are the highest - up to 180% of the global price.
EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said as European cotton production represented only 2% of that of the world, the community aid scheme does not have a significant impact on world prices.
WTO director-general Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand urged ministers to "fully explore all avenues for an appropriate and satisfactory solution", adding that the initiative had "strong moral and economic merit".
The initiative features in a 21-page draft declaration under discussion by ministers of the 146 WTO member states for reviving currently stalled talks to end trade barriers.BBC News:
