African producers to block WTO deal if no cotton agreement
Thursday, 4 December 2008
GENEVA, Dec 3 (AFP): African cotton-producing countries are ready to block any global trade deal that fails to address their interests on cotton, Mali Trade Minister Ahmadou Abdoulaye Diallo said yesterday.
"We would say loud and clear that if our interests are not preserved, it would be out of the question for us to sign" up to a deal, Diallo told the agency.
Diallo was speaking on behalf of the four major African cotton-producing countries-Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso and Chad, which want industrialised countries, particularly the United States, to lower domestic subsidies that they say depress world cotton prices at poorer countries' expense.
As the World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy considers calling ministers to a meeting this month to hammer out a global trade liberalisation pact, Diallo said the cotton issue must be put on the table.
"Cotton may be for others a secondary question but for us it is a vital, essential question. It is the cornerstone of our development policies," he said, pointing out that cotton makes up about seven per cent of the four countries gross domestic product.
"We hope that cotton would be among the first points of the agenda of this ministerial meeting, contrary to what happened in July," he added.
The issue of cotton was not addressed when ministers met here in July in another attempt to thrash out an overall trade liberalisation accord under the WTO's Doha round.
The July talks collapsed due to disputes between developed and developing countries over a mechanism to protect poor farmers from sharp increases in protective tariffs.
"We would say loud and clear that if our interests are not preserved, it would be out of the question for us to sign" up to a deal, Diallo told the agency.
Diallo was speaking on behalf of the four major African cotton-producing countries-Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso and Chad, which want industrialised countries, particularly the United States, to lower domestic subsidies that they say depress world cotton prices at poorer countries' expense.
As the World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy considers calling ministers to a meeting this month to hammer out a global trade liberalisation pact, Diallo said the cotton issue must be put on the table.
"Cotton may be for others a secondary question but for us it is a vital, essential question. It is the cornerstone of our development policies," he said, pointing out that cotton makes up about seven per cent of the four countries gross domestic product.
"We hope that cotton would be among the first points of the agenda of this ministerial meeting, contrary to what happened in July," he added.
The issue of cotton was not addressed when ministers met here in July in another attempt to thrash out an overall trade liberalisation accord under the WTO's Doha round.
The July talks collapsed due to disputes between developed and developing countries over a mechanism to protect poor farmers from sharp increases in protective tariffs.