While the recent meeting marked the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Doha Development Round, lack of commitment from developed countries to meaningful reform has effectively brought the talks to a standstill.
Empty gestures
The US was once again under pressure to cut the billions of dollars it gives to its cotton farmers in subsidies every year.
These subsidies remain one of the crucial sticking points in negotiations, especially for the ‘Cotton-4’ countries of West Africa which lose millions of dollars in valuable revenue due to US subsidies dragging down the world price of cotton.
The US did announce some steps to improve market access for Least Developed Countries’ cotton and pledged $16 million in technical assistance over the next four years.
The US also held a separate bilateral meeting with the C-4 countries to discuss these proposals - it was clear cotton was still high on the agenda.
However these commitments amount to no more than empty gestures which fail to tackle the root problem – that US subsidies prevent poor cotton farmers around the world from getting a fair price for their crop.
The $16 million promised to the C-4 countries is over sixty times less than what they stand to gain from the removal of US cotton subsidies over the same period.
What next?
The continuing stalemate at the WTO fundamentally calls into question the credibility of the organisation in its current form.
Multilateral trade rules are preferable to bilateral deals where poor countries are invariably the much weaker partner and the negotiations clearly do not deliver for development – for example with Economic Partnership Agreements. However with countries such as the US consistently ignoring the demands of poor countries and the WTO itself, the future of the body remains far from certain.
As for US cotton subsides, the upcoming Farm Bill in 2012 presents an opportunity for the US to reform these handouts, deliver for poor countries and take an important first step in restoring faith in the multilateral trade system.
Traidcraft will be monitoring this legislation and other developments on cotton over the coming months.
