(Hindu Business Line, Chennai, 25 May 2012) U.S. farm support legislation is due for revision later this year. Cotton exporters like India should take a cue from Brazil and pressure the U.S. to bring down its market-distorting export subsidies… The origin of this dispute can be traced back to September 2002 when Brazil first took the U.S. to the WTO over latter’s trade-distorting subsidies for cotton. Later, Argentina, Australia, Benin, Canada, Chad, China, Chinese Taipei, European Union, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Venezuela, Japan and Thailand joined the dispute as third parties. After losing at the WTO, the US made some changes in its cotton programme… Unhappy with the U.S. actions, Brazil asked for a WTO compliance panel, which found that the US has not fully complied with the WTO rulings… Brazil agreed to postpone retaliatory actions until the revision of U.S. farm legislation, in return for an annual payment of $147.3 million in technical assistance and capacity-building aid to the Brazilian Cotton Institute.
