US Loses Major WTO Ruling On Cotton Subsidies - Reuters

[hatrack]

GENEVA — Brazil's emphatic win over the United States in a key trade ruling over cotton will send shock waves through world trade talks and embolden those demanding all farm subsidies be slashed, analysts said on Tuesday. The Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO), in a confidential decision, told Washington to halt much of the lavish aid it gives the country's some 25,000 cotton farmers, ruling it illegal, sources close to the ruling said.

The decision goes to the heart of the debate at troubled WTO negotiations to reform world farm trade, where angry poorer countries argue the massive subsidy schemes of their richer rivals depress prices and keep them out of lucrative markets.

EDIT

The cotton ruling by a panel of WTO trade judges, which has not been made public, will be particularly welcomed by West African producers. They had been pleading for their crop to be given special consideration at the Geneva farm talks because of the heavy losses they have suffered.

World cotton prices have recovered slightly over the past year, but the international aid agency Oxfam calculates that West African countries, which are often heavily reliant on cotton exports, have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in needed foreign earnings because of U.S. policy."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-28/s_23246.asp

[gate of the sun]

1. people please realize how bad the WTO is.

for everyone.