Interviews
New proposal for cotton – WTO
23 Feb '06
2 min read
World Trade Organization reporter stated that Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali submitted new proposal (TN/AG/GEN/12) calling cotton subsidies to be cut more deeply and more rapidly than domestic support to other products.
The four proponents of the WTO work programme on cotton called for the reduction in trade-distorting domestic support to be three times higher than the cut agreed for domestic support in general, and the implementation period to be one third as long.
This would be accomplished by linking the general reduction formula to a coefficient 'c' when calculating cuts to cotton subsidies.
How cotton subsidies might be cut by three times more than overall domestic support is unclear, since for the proposals on the table, this would entail reductions of the order of 150 to 210 percent.
However, sources suggest that the four countries are, in coming weeks, likely to spell out how this coefficient 'c' would translate into a higher level of than that for other products. Major cotton subsidizers such as the US reportedly did not comment on the proposal.
Some process-related concerns emerged at the meeting. Cuba and Sri Lanka wondered out loud about whether their views had been represented in consultations to which they had not been invited.
Some delegates suggested that countries not belonging to significant regional or other groupings in the negotiations risked being left on the margins of the discussions.
The next official 'agriculture week' is set to begin on 20 March.
The four proponents of the WTO work programme on cotton called for the reduction in trade-distorting domestic support to be three times higher than the cut agreed for domestic support in general, and the implementation period to be one third as long.
This would be accomplished by linking the general reduction formula to a coefficient 'c' when calculating cuts to cotton subsidies.
How cotton subsidies might be cut by three times more than overall domestic support is unclear, since for the proposals on the table, this would entail reductions of the order of 150 to 210 percent.
However, sources suggest that the four countries are, in coming weeks, likely to spell out how this coefficient 'c' would translate into a higher level of than that for other products. Major cotton subsidizers such as the US reportedly did not comment on the proposal.
Some process-related concerns emerged at the meeting. Cuba and Sri Lanka wondered out loud about whether their views had been represented in consultations to which they had not been invited.
Some delegates suggested that countries not belonging to significant regional or other groupings in the negotiations risked being left on the margins of the discussions.
The next official 'agriculture week' is set to begin on 20 March.
World Trade Organization
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