ICAC 70th Plenary Meeting highly successful

15 Sep '11

3 min read

The 70th Plenary Meeting of the ICAC was completed on Friday, September 9, 2011 and documents of the meeting are now available on the web, including reports from the Secretariat, presentations delivered during Open, Plenary and Breakout sessions, statements by countries and international organizations, and summaries of discussions during each session.

ICAC meetings serve to improve world cotton production, consumption and trade by showcasing best practices that can then be adapted for adoption. The 70th Plenary Meeting showcased methods and institutions for technology development and transfer to ensure the success of small and medium-sized producers. (First Open Session on Monday, 5 September.)

The meeting showcased successful farmer's organizations in six countries and drew conclusions regarding the factors leading to the success of such organizations. (Second Open Session, Monday, 5 September.)

The difficulties and benefits for farmers using organic production practices were explored. (Third Open Session, Tuesday, 6 September.)

The ICAC Secretariat reported on the outlook for world cotton production, consumption, trade and stocks and gave information on strategies for managing price risk. (Fourth Open Session, Tuesday, 6 September.)

Mill use of cotton in Argentina has risen substantially in the past decade, and the policies for textile industry growth were explored. (Fifth Open Session, Tuesday, 6 September.)

ICAC meetings serve as a forum for discussions among governments of policies and programs affecting the health of the cotton sector. The member governments of ICAC agreed that stronger national efforts to gather and report statistics on cotton production, consumption and stocks would enhance transparency and provide additional information for decision making. There was agreement that defaults on contracts; trade-distorting measures by governments and other factors contribute to price volatility. The Committee recommended the use of metric measures to standardize statistics on cotton. (Fourth Open Session, Tuesday, 6 September.)

The Committee heard that the Doha Round is “deadlocked and paralyzed," but the ICAC agreed that the Doha Round cannot be allowed to die because its issues remain important and must be solved. The ICAC underscored the importance of trade policy as a key companion to fiscal and monetary policies in facilitating world economic growth and development. (First Plenary Session, Tuesday, 6 September.)

A technical seminar on the topic of technological innovations for sustainable development was conducted. Six papers were presented. (Sixth Open Session, Thursday, 8 September.)

Another purpose of ICAC meetings is information exchange, and 38 statements from international organizations, member governments and non-member governments were received. (Second Plenary Session, Wednesday, 7 September.) In addition, four breakout sessions on responsible labor practices and answering attacks on cotton (Wednesday, 7 September) and demand enhancement and improving the collection of statistics (Thursday, 8 September) were conducted.

The 70th Plenary Meeting was highly successful, with nearly 500 participants from 39 countries and 7 international organizations. The hospitality of the people and Government of Argentina was much appreciated.

International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC)

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