Associated Press | By Jeffrey McMurray | Sept. 12, 2003
WASHINGTON - Three Southern senators have endorsed a proposal by the United States to broaden the scope of this week's World Trade Organization talks, a move they hope will take the focus off subsidies for American cotton growers.
The proposal, announced late Wednesday by American trade representatives taking part in the negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, maintains that any discussion about cotton subsidies should also include talks about "distortions" by foreign textile competitors, including allegations that China has tried to circumvent American import rules.
In a letter sent earlier this week to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, the three senators, all members of the Agriculture Committee, seemed to suggest talks on cotton shouldn't even be part of the WTO's agenda this round.
But a spokesman for the committee explained Thursday that the letter actually was designed to strengthen Zoellick's hand at the talks. All three senators - Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., support the American proposal, he said.
Cochran is heading to the talks Thursday.
"Critics of America's cotton program are dead wrong when they blame our hardworking farmers for economic problems they are facing," Chambliss said. "It would be more productive for cotton growers in the United States as well as Africa if the WTO takes a good long look at all of the forces which are affecting world prices for cotton."
Cotton subsidies to the United States came under fire when four African nations argued subsidies were being enjoyed only by the wealthy nations. But American trade representatives said that subsidies weren't the only thing hampering the foreign cotton market.
In a Cancun news conference Wednesday, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Josette Shiner said studies prove that competition by synthetic fibers, a worldwide economic slowdown and higher yields due to favorable weather are all contributing factors.
Mark Lange, president of the National Cotton Council, said a focus on American cotton would ignore abuses by several Asian countries that are harming the American market.
"Cotton subsidies can be examined and talked about in terms of disciplines, but only if there are going to be some reciprocal gains on market access," Lange said. "India and Pakistan have extraordinary barriers, and China has huge rebates on exports for taxes."
Fatiou Akplogan, trade minister for Benin - one of the nations trying to focus the talks on cotton, said that while cotton represents 40 percent of exports for the country, farmers are receiving less money for it because richer countries are subsidizing their farmers.
Almost half of global domestic cotton subsidies are paid by the United States to its producers - around $2.2 billion in 2001-2002. China is the second-biggest subsidizer, with payments of about $1.2 billion in the same period.Associated Press:
