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Where's The Moral Fiber?
International agency Oxfam is concerned that the United States has
signaled its intention to fight to defend its massive cotton subsidy
program that is causing suffering to millions of poor African farmers
The US announced today that it is appealing a World Trade Organization
(WTO) ruling that had declared the majority of US cotton subsidies
illegal.
In a new report today, Oxfam details how US subsidies encourage
overproduction and facilitate the dumping of excess cotton overseas,
undermining the livelihoods of poor farmers in the developing world. The
report, Finding the Moral Fiber: Why reform is urgently needed for a fair
cotton trade was published as part of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign. It
urges the US to reform its farm programs and stop dumping.
"The appeal casts serious doubts about whether the US has any real
intention to reform its unfair cotton industry," said Celine Charveriat,
head of Oxfam International's Geneva office. "The case against US cotton
dumping is plain and overwhelming and confirmed by the WTO. The US was
part of a world-wide commitment in July to make "ambitious" reforms of
cotton subsidies - and this appeal flies in the face of this commitment."
In a case brought by Brazil and backed by other developing nations, a WTO
panel found in September that $3.2 billion in US annual cotton subsidies
and $1.6 billion in export credits (for cotton and other commodities) are
illegal under WTO rules.
"The US uses the dispute settlement mechanism more than any other WTO
member. Not only does the US have a moral obligation to stop dumping
cotton, but it is also in its own interest to follow the WTO's findings,"
Charveriat said.
Oxfam estimates that US dumping created losses of almost $400 million for
poor cotton-producing African countries between 2001 and 2003. The new
report shatters the myth that farm subsidies help small US family farms,
revealing instead that the largest 10% of cotton farms in the US receive a
staggering 78% of subsidies.
In Finding the Moral Fiber, Oxfam calls on the US to swiftly implement the
WTO ruling and negotiate new rules that would stop dumping. Doing so would
bring relief to the millions of farmers in poor countries dependent on
cotton for their livelihood.
"You must tell the Americans that we are all in one world, they are our
brothers, we need each other," said Nicodeme Biwando, a cotton farmer in
Burkina Faso quoted in the Oxfam report. "Their way of doing things is not
good, because it keeps us from moving forward. May they find a solution so
that all of us together, them and us, can make progress."
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