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West Africa: Free Trade With U.S. Would Boost Cotton Farmers
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21 June 2007
Posted to the web 21 June 2007
Brian Kennedy
Washington, DC
Poor West African farmers' incomes could increase by about 5 percent if the United States eliminated its cotton subsidies, according to a new report released today by Oxfam America, an international advocacy and development organization.
The authors of "Impacts of Reductions in U.S. Cotton Subsidies on West African Cotton Producers" found that eliminating U.S. cotton subsidies would increase world prices by 6 to 14 percent.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, cotton subsidies totalled more than $4 billion in the 2005 fiscal year.
The U.S. Congress is currently considering subsidies for the U.S. cotton industry in the 2007 Farm Bill, which will set the level of subsidies for the next five years.
"With Congress looking at the Farm Bill right now ... this study shows how reform could help millions of poor people who are ready to lift themselves out of poverty through farming and fair trade," said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America.
According to the study, eliminating U.S. cotton subsidies would mean an extra $46 to $114 per year for a typical cotton-producing household in West Africa. More than 10 million people in West Africa depend on cotton farming for their major source of income.
"These new numbers show that even a modest increase in the world price of cotton that only partly reaches the farmer could greatly improve the daily lives of some of world's poorest people, and could literally mean millions of poor people could be fed," said Daniel Summer, chairperson of the University of California Davis Agricultural Center and one of the authors of the study.
The U.S. cotton industry does not agree with the findings. Mark Lange, president and CEO of The National Cotton Council, a lobbying group, wrote in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab last week, "We have provided a great deal of information that demonstrating clearly that eliminating U.S. cotton subsidies will not provide a solution for the economic plight of West African cotton producers."
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The authors of the study argue that eliminating subsidies "could significantly ease the burden on cotton farmers struggling to support their families," but that more extensive action was needed to increase farmers' incomes.
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