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Developing Countries Get Preferential Treatment Under Doha Talks

With the U.S. now dependent on the export market to sell its cotton, market access is vital to global markets.

But that access would be denied under any Doha agreement as it currently stands. Larry McClendon, chairman of the National Cotton Council and a producer-ginner in Marianna, Arkansas, says the U.S. Congress must not go along with any global accord that is bad for this nation's trade, while giving the edge to developing countries.

McClendon says the U.S. industry already has made ample concessions in trade talks. Speaking at the ongoing 2009 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in San Antonio, McClendon notes that only a few years ago, the U.S. milled about 10% of the world's cotton. Today, it's a mere 3%.

Meanwhile, China mills 40% of the entire world's cotton now. Yet, he laments, China is classified only as a "developing" country. He finds irony in that term for China. But because the U.S. is classified as a developed country, it doesn't get the preferential treatment under current world trade protocol as China.

"There are 151 countries in the WTO," McClendon quips. "And 150 of them are against us."

McClendon says other U.S. commodities better stay alert to the sacrifices cotton already has made and is being asked to make more concessions under the Doha round of trade talks, because they are next.

With 70% of U.S. cotton production dependent on the export market, the American cotton industry will be in deep trouble if locked out of market access under a bad agreement. When Doha talks crank up again, it's important to make sure Congress does not go along with a bad world trade agreement, McClendon notes.

Mark Lange, president and CEO of the National Cotton Council of America says some members of Congress sent staffers to Geneva during July 2008 to help watch over U.S. interests.