News

August 04, 2008

World Cotton Production Expected To Fall In 2008/9

By Sally White

The United States, Europe and emerging economies were last week trying to recoup something from the failure of attempts to reach a new global trade pact, and traded blame for the collapse after seven years of talks. Farm import issues ultimately divided the United States and developing countries, led by China, India and Brazil, in the nine days of negotiations. The World Trade Organization's Geneva meeting was the last chance to strike a deal on cutting tariffs and subsidies in agriculture and manufactured goods before the U.S. presidential election in November.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has said there is no `Plan B.'' While the trade talks, launched in the Qatari capital of Doha in 2001, have struggled before, this failure was perhaps the most devastating. Faced with global unrest from rising food prices, credit problems from shaky financial markets and the threat of economic downturn, negotiators had hoped that a deal  to open farm and industrial markets would go some way to alleviating these problems.

But the talks hit a snag...