U.S. Makes Plea On Cotton, West Africans Unimpressed

HONG KONG -- With the World Trade Organization meeting under way, the United States is trying to convince West African governments to pressure the European Union into making a bigger offer to cut agricultural tariffs and subsidies.

But the West African governments, which have been charging that U.S. cotton subsidies lowered world cotton prices since 2001, remain insistent that the United States cut its cotton subsidies quickly, ahead of other cuts.

A delegation of 10 U.S. officials unexpectedly showed up at a "Cotton Day" conference Monday sponsored by Oxfam and other nongovernmental organizations. The delegation was led by Deputy Trade Representative Karan Bhatia, who said his office only learned of the conference Sunday evening and asked to be included.

Gawain Kripke, a Washington-based Oxfam official, said the organizers, which included West African cotton groups, allowed the United States to be included on the program in hopes Bhatia would announce a new initiative. But he did not.

At the conference, Bhatia told the assembled West African ministers and farmers' advocates the United States had taken the "radical step" of eliminating the Step 2 program that helps sell U.S. cotton when the world price is lower than the U.S. price.

He also said the United States is providing technical and marketing assistance to West African cotton growers.

Bhatia also said the impact of U.S. subsidies on West African cotton might be less than the West Africans believe and said the United States wants a solution that will help West Africa with all of agriculture.

The United States, he said, had made an "ambitious" proposal when it offered to cut trade-distorting domestic subsidies 60 percent and hopes the European Union "will meet ambition with ambition."

"We need to eliminate subsidies," Bhatia added. "We agree it is the right thing for us and for global development."

But Sam Amehou, Benin's ambassador to the WTO, said the West Africans are disappointed that the United States, which produces much more cotton than the European Union, has not eliminated its subsidies already.

Amehou also said the loss of income from low cotton prices means Benin doesn't have "enough financial means to organize elections."

Bhatia told the conference that cotton should be considered only in the context of the rest of agriculture and the Doha negotiating round in general.

But that statement led African ministers and farmers to say they wanted the focus to remain on cotton because that is the crop on which they are united. In fact, the number of countries united by the cotton issue appears to have grown.

Representatives of farmers in Ghana, a former British colony, and Mozambique, a onetime Portuguese colony, joined French-speaking West African countries that have been lobbying on cotton since 2003 -- Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali -- in saying that the emphasis should stay on cotton because all the countries have cotton farmers.

The National Cotton Council issued a news release last week thanking members of Congress for urging the Bush administration not to make a separate deal on cotton in the Doha round. By Jerry Hagstrom