New offensive to defend African cotton

On 15 March in Brussels, the President of the Committee of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) launched an offensive aimed at generating a new impetus on the part of the European Union and the United States to mobilise support of African cotton. 

The action is being led by the UEMOA and the Cotton-4 group (C4) that represents the four producing countries (Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali and Chad), instigators of the first “cotton initiative” submitted to the WTO in 2003. Recent years have brought no progress, stressed Soumaïla Cissé. The aim is to obtain the removal of internal subsidies for European and US cotton producers that cause imbalances on the world market at the expense of African producers. The EU and the US each claim they are not responsible. UEMOA contends that the status quo they maintain is adding to the impoverishment of the 15 million cotton growers of West and Central Africa.

The West African organisation wants to benefit from the opportunities offered by the current review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the EU and by the preparation of debates on the Farm Bill in the United States. 

Decoupling

At the European level, the C4 is demanding 100% decoupling of aid to cotton producers in Greece and Spain. Coupled aid subsidises farmers’ incomes according to the surface area they cultivate. The aid is higher for cotton than for most other agricultural products. Cotton has been decoupled for 65%, compared with 90% for other agricultural products. That is insufficient, stressed Soumaïla Cissé, who called for the remaining 35% to be abolished and declared that there will be no solution for the Doha round if there is no solution for cotton.  

Applying the WTO rules

The UEMOA Commission President addressed the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly  on the 16th of March 2011. The new initiative for African cotton is aimed at making MEPs more aware of the issue and motivating them to act, especially given their increased power of co-decision, and to initiate legislation introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. JPA Co-President Louis Michel has already relayed their message. In a parliamentary question addressed to the European Commission, the MEP stressed that:  “African cotton growers are not asking for favoured treatment but the application of the WTO rules {…} and the abolition of unbalanced measures in support of cotton production and export, with the aim of combating poverty by recognising the strategic nature of cotton for their development.” 

For its part, the European Commission stresses that its production represents just 2% of global production and is far behind that of the United States, the third major producer after China and India. 

The UMEOA is also seeking European support in pleading its case in the United States. The African cotton industry has high growth potential. “We must prevent its decline,” warns Soumaïla Cissé, “if we want to avoid reliving the experience of the collapse of the Groundnut Basin in Mali and Senegal that saw young people from the region join the flow of migrants to Europe.” 

Anne-Marie Mouradian