African cotton growers worry over trade talks setback

African cotton producers said on June 22 the collapse of talks critical to salvaging global trade negotiations was a blow to their hopes of obtaining an end to US cotton subsidies. But the struggling African growers vowed to pursue their campaign in the World Trade Organisation against hefty subsidies paid to American cotton farmers which they say shut them out of the market and keep them stuck in poverty.

On June 21, discussions in Potsdam, Germany, between four of the world's big trade powers ended in failure, throwing into doubt the future of global WTO talks on free commerce.

The United States and European Union, representing rich nations, and Brazil and India, for the developing world, were attempting to overcome deep differences over how far to open up farm and industry markets and cut rich country farm subsidies.

"It's a shame the big states flee from their responsibilities over such a vital issue... their attitude is purely and simply an affront against human rights," said Francois Traore, president of the African Cotton Producers' Union (APROCA). Traore, who also heads Burkina Faso's National Union of Cotton Producers, said African growers would keep lobbying within the WTO. "The WTO is still the structure which should find a solution to this farm subsidies problem ... short of taking up arms against them (the subsidy-paying countries), the only option is negotiation and we'll continue with that," he said.

African cotton producers such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin, Togo, Chad and Ivory Coast call the subsidies issue a matter of survival for their farm-based economies. They want Washington to help compensate for what they see as millions of dollars of losses due to lower prices they say are caused by subsidies.

"The failure of the talks has ruined our hopes. We were hoping they would finish up with something favourable," said Laurent Fihox Gbegbe, spokesman for Ivory Coast's Professional Association of Cotton Companies.

Bassiaka Dao, president of Burkina Faso's Confederation of Peasant Farmers, accused the big trade powers, and especially the United States, of "dictating their law".

"I'm convinced that's what they want, to keep us poor countries in poverty," he said.

The European Union's top aid official said the collapse of the Potsdam talks could threaten the
so-called Doha round of WTO negotiations. "It will not have a positive impact, I think everybody knows that," EU Aid and Development Commissioner Louis Michel said. He said the EU imported more agricultural goods from the developing world than the rest of the G8 countries together, adding that 97 percent of goods from Africa entered the EU free of duties and duty quotas. "By 2008, that will be 99.99 percent, and in 2015, it will be 100 percent. We cannot go further than that," he said, adding that Europe's trading partners needed to make concessions too.

Brazil and India said the United States and the EU were demanding too high a price for cutting their trade distorting farm policies. The U.S. and EU said Brazil and India refused to offer significant new market openings in manufacturing.

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