China to promote cotton production in C4 countries

04 Dec '13

2 min read

China has moved a step further towards promoting the cotton production capacities of C4 countries, consisting of Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, which together account for 15 percent of the world’s cotton exports, Xinhua reported.

Trade officials from the two sides announced China’s expanded cooperation program with C4 countries, on the sidelines of the ongoing ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Bali, Indonesia.

China will promote the capacity of the C4 countries through cooperation in production, processing and logistics operations of the cotton industry, Gao Hucheng, China’s Minister of Commerce said at a press briefing.

The current agreement is a follow-up of a cooperation program that began in 2011 at the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference, Mr. Hucheng said.

Speaking on behalf of the C4 group, Abderahim Bireme Hamid, Chad’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, said the cooperation program has helped cotton growers in the four Central and West African countries.

The two sides said based on the results of the previous program, practical measures would be taken to have more effective and diversified cooperation under the framework of South-South cooperation.

Mr. Hucheng said China wishes to increase the C4’s capacity in cotton processing and logistics, and make it a new model of South-South cooperation.

He added that the extended program would also cover new areas like sales, besides increased assistance in infrastructure improvement, technology, training and research, as well as encouraging setting up of Chinese-African joint venture companies, to be carried out by 2014-end.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo described the China-C4 cooperation on cotton as a very welcome development which would give a renewed push for WTO negotiations.

He said the assistance under South-South cooperation benefits both the parties, as they learn from each other.

Although China is one of the leading cotton producing nations, producing nearly seven million tons of cotton each year, it hardly exports any cotton, rather it needs to import from other countries.

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