West African nations warned Wednesday that a crucial World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting would fail unless rich countries halted subsidies to cotton growers, support that is seen as harming the interests of poor farmers, reports the World Bank press review.
Officials from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali said their interests must not be sidelined at the December 13-18 Hong Kong WTO ministerial meeting, which is meant to agree upon the outline of an international accord tearing down barriers to global trade. Ngarmbatina Odjimbeye Soukate, trade minister of Chad, said the four countries need assurances ahead of the summit.
The US and the EU have come forward with new proposals, offering to cut import duties on farm goods as well as subsidies, and discussed them behind closed doors Wednesday with Australia, Brazil and India, also big hitters at the WTO. But the proposals have steered clear of the cotton issue, the trade minister of Mali, Choguell Maige said.
Both ministers said they would “not be held responsible for a failure” in Hong Kong. – If there is blockage, African countries will not be to blame. We are not asking for something on a plate, but just that the accepted rules of the WTO be applied, Maige said.
The four West African governments want the summit to fix a date for the elimination of cotton subsidies. Cotton is a key earner for countries in West and Central Africa, which estimate that they lose at least 1 billion US dollar (6 milliarder DKR) every year because of heavy subsidies paid by the US, as well as the EU and China, to their domestic cotton industries.
– We want to go to Hong Kong, but we want to be sure that we will come back with some concrete proposals and not with words which hold no interest for our people,” said Soukate adding: – That is the price for us staying in the WTO.
Although the US and EU made new proposals last week to cut their farm subsidies and tariffs, these did not include specific measures to cut the support they pay to their cotton farmers, Maige noted.
The international aid agency Oxfam estimated African countries have lost more than 350 million US dollar in potential export revenue in the last two years because of low international prices, while the US has been able to pay more subsidies to its own producers to compensate for the depressed market.
Cotton represents about 30 percent of export earnings for countries in west and central Africa, and at least 10 million people depend directly on cotton production.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
