Cotton Subcommittee Formed for WTO Trade Talks

In conclusion of trade talks now taking place in Geneva, negotiators set up a body to focus specifically on cotton in the agriculture talks aimed to broker a World Trade Organization trade deal.

The agreement to create a body to focus specifically on cotton is WTO member governments' latest response to proposals from four African countries, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, to tackle the sector.

The framework that was approved in July stipulates that cotton will be addressed "ambitiously, expeditiously and specifically" within the agriculture negotiations. The subcommittee is tasked to work on "all trade-distorting policies affecting the sector", in all three key areas of the agriculture talks -- the "three pillars of market access, domestic support, and export competition" -- as specified in the 2001 Doha Declaration, which launched the current negotiations, and the "framework" text, which is part of the July 2004 package decision.