Charles Cobb Jr.
25 June 2003
Washington, DC — U.S. and European subsidies and tariffs "support injustice," Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure told the House International Relations Subcommitteee on Africa, Tuesday, summarizing written testimony that he presented for the record.
Toure said he was representing all African nations and the devastating effect of subsidies on Malian cotton illustrates the harm that agriculural subsidies - now totaling more that US$300bn in the United States and Europe - are causing to agriculture across the continent. "We have decided to pull the alarm bell."
Toure is the first Afican President or head of state to testify before the subcommittee. "We needed to bring some weight to this," said one member of the president's party. Agricultural issues, a key element in the political structure of a small group of powerful legislators, are not usually taken up by the Africa subcommittee.
But there is a crisis, said Toure. Agriculture subsidies that keep prices artificially low contribute significantly to the continued economic deterioration in Mali and other cotton-producers in Africa. There have been "serious consequences on our economies," he told the lawmakers in his written testimony. "Mali lost 1.7 percent of her GDP and 8 percent of her export receipts; Burkina Faso lost 1 percent of her GDP and 12 percent of her export receipts; Benin lost 1.4 percent of her GDP and 9 percent of her export receipts.
And low prices for agricultural products lead to rural depopulation which, in turn, leads to urban unrest and "breeding grounds for terrorism."
African cotton producers have a competitive advantage but "international trade rules, as defined by the World Trade Organization, are biased" by the substantial subsidies granted to European, American and Chinese cotton producers. - in 2001 estimated to be, US$700m for Europe, US$2.3bn for the USA and US$1.2bn for China.
Also testifying Tuesday was the Secretary-General for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Erastus J.O. Mwencha, who told the subcommitteee that "obstacles" to the export of fresh fruit to the United States were "considerable."
Last year, said Mwencha, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved just 45 items of fresh products from all 54 nations of Africa. In the Comesa region, said Mwencha, "only four products had been approved and these are onions and pineapples for Kenya, Snow peas for Zambia and yams for Madagascar."
Opening the hearing, subcommittee chairman, Ed Royce (R-California) noted that "by one estimate, the elimination of subsidies and other protections in developed countries would allow African countries to triple their net agricultural trade."
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We believe that trade should create quotas creating a somewhat equitable balance between the various continents. The US and European nations can find ways to increase trade activities in a more favorable setting. Mali President should probably express his thoughts with a bit more diplomacy though since the relationships between African nations and Western nations have always been very ambiguous.
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