Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume • Number 40 • 24th November 2004
Agriculture: Members Establish New WTO Committee On Cotton
As part of the overall negotiations during the "agriculture week" spanning 15-19 November (see related story, this issue), WTO Members agreed on 19 November to establish a sub-committee under the Committee on Agriculture (CoA) special session dealing specifically with the issue of cotton. The establishment of the subcommittee was mandated in the July Package on the Doha Round (WT/L/579), which states that Members "shall ensure appropriate prioritisation of the cotton issue independently from other sectoral initiatives. A subcommittee on cotton will meet periodically and report to the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture to review progress. Work shall encompass all trade-distorting policies affecting the sector in all three pillars of market access, domestic support, and export competition". A number of African countries as well as the US welcomed the establishment of the sub-committee, and proposed that Tim Groser (New Zealand), chair of the CoA special session, also chair the sub-committee on cotton. Pakistan called for an "early harvest" on cotton and stressed the need for all trade distorting policies to be dealt with, while Paraguay called for results by the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December 2005.
Commenting on the new sub-committee at a press briefing, Benin’s WTO envoy Samuel Amehou said, "It is an important step toward a solution of the crisis in the cotton sector. Nevertheless, a lot needs to be done in the coming months and we need to get beyond the great declarations of principle". He stressed the need for developed countries like the US to expeditiously abolish all subsidies in this sector.
The cotton initiative was originally launched by four West-African countries in 2003 in the build-up to the Cancun ministerial (BRIDGES Weekly, 4 June 2003). It called for the phase-out of subsidies to developed country cotton producers and for a compensation mechanism to offset the income loss experienced by producers in least developed countries until the completion of the phase-out. The proponents had hoped to keep the cotton initiative on a separate track within the Doha Round, but agreed in July this year to subsume the initiative into the agriculture negotiations — however establishing a separate sub-committee to deal with the issue.
ICTSD reporting; "WTO takes first steps towards seeking cotton deal," REUTERS, 19 November 2004; "Sub-committee set up on cotton," WTO RELEASE, 19 November 2004.