The WTO and the cotton initiative
At the end of 2008, European donors stopped funding the «Cotton Initiative». It was an endeavour by four African countries to get US and EU cotton subsidies prohibited. They were supported by the Geneva-based consulting firm IDEAS Centre. How does its Director Nicholas Imboden see the outcome of the initiative? - Interview published in: Alliance Sud News No. 59, Spring 2009
In 2003, the four African countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad launched the «Cotton Initiative» at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Their goal was to have all cotton subsidies eliminated in the Doha Round of negotiations. African producers are suffering badly as a result of the unfair, highly subsidised competition from the USA and Europe, which is depressing world prices. Through this initiative, poor countries were for the first time not asking for aid, loans or special conditions, but quite simply for the enforcement of valid WTO rules.
Alliance Sud News: Nicolas Imboden, African cotton-producing countries have so far achieved no concrete results. They are now losing their most important external support with the withdrawal of the donors. Has the initiative failed?
Nicolas Imboden: No. The initiative has had a significant systemic impact. It was the first time that four commercially insignificant countries had managed to draw international attention to themselves. Unlike in the past, it is today acknowledged that the problem of cotton subsidies needs to be solved urgently. The WTO has recognized the demands as legitimate and has agreed to tackle the problem in the framework of the Doha negotiations. Besides it is also the first time that African countries in the WTO have rallied around a common cause. They have shown that when small nations unite, they are able to participate in and make an impact on the system. It is clear today that there will be no conclusion of the Doha Round unless cotton is included. Precisely how things play out will depend on the negotiations that lie ahead.
So far the USA has hardly budged. Can a change be expected with Obama?
The USA was ready to make a move in July 2008, though on condition that China opened up its cotton market. Beijing nevertheless rejected this for fear of jeopardising its own producers and triggering unrest in the strongly Muslim-dominated and sensitive northeast of the country. The talks have been in stalemate since then. The situation again looks somewhat better today. The Democratic Administration is less dependent on the cotton lobby. Obama is more mindful of the repercussions of US policies on the poorest regions, above all in Africa. With the case of cotton he could set a precedent. After all, the Cotton Initiative has triggered a debate in the United States itself about the absurdity of the cotton subsidies, from which only 10 per cent of producers benefit. Those farmers are aware that the days of their subsidies are numbered and are switching increasingly to other products such as agrofuel.
Some say that the cotton Initiative was a cause more of IDEAS Centre than of the African countries.
At the onset that was necessarily so, but the African countries subsequently appropriated the project. They have learned a lot from it. They now know that they can achieve something if they approach it in a united and coherent manner. This has not always been the case. One country had even left the initiative at one point and sided with the USA. Under pressure from the others, it changed its mind again.
Do you regret that the IDEAS project is drawing to a close?
No, a project of this kind cannot last forever. Of course the African countries will still need training and coaching to be able to react proactively to developments within the WTO – especially given the lack of institutional stability and the frequent staff turnover. Some external impetus is still necessary so that the matter does not peter out. This is why IDEAS has worked out a new project: we would like to encourage cooperation between Africans and Brazilians, the latter having filed a complaint against illegal US cotton subsidies. The WTO Appellate Body recently found against the USA in the matter. We would like to see Brazil demand not just financial compensation but also systemic change. We would also like to signal to the USA that the matter would be taken further if it wanted to stop at mere financial compensation. The Africans will in turn file a complaint – in the certainty that they will succeed.
Interview: Michel Egger
