Rich nations can best respond to African cotton producers' concerns about subsidies by agreeing on a global deal to open up agricultural markets and cut farm supports, a US trade official said on Friday.
Responding to fresh demands from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali that rich nations eliminate cotton export subsidies by the end of 2005, the official said: "In order to have a meaningful response on cotton, we must first have a significant agricultural market opening and reform package in the World Trade Organisation negotiations."
WTO member countries are currently trying to negotiate a framework for lowering trade barriers around the world but have run into trouble with agriculture, where the United States and Europe differ over approaches to reduce rich nations' farm supports.
"Picking out particular sectors doesn't make sense when we haven't yet established the level of ambition in agriculture," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The United States, the world's largest cotton exporter, has proposed eliminating export subsidies in 2010, cutting domestic subsidies by 60 percent and then eliminating them over time, and reducing import duties by 55 to 90 percent.
Its offer was dependent on a counter-offer from Brussels which, when it came, was deemed not sufficiently ambitious. Europe offered an average tariff cut of about 38 percent. The four cotton-dependent African countries also said on Friday rich nations must drop 80 percent of other trade-distorting cotton subsidies by 2006.
That went further than a proposal from Brussels - also put to a WTO meeting on Friday - that all agree to eliminate export subsidies the moment a new trade treaty goes into effect.
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