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ARTICLE BY THE PRESIDENTS OF MALI & BURKINA FASO
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Your Farm Subsidies Are Strangling Us
July 11, 2003
By AMADOU TOUMANI TOURÉ and BLAISE COMPAORÉ
After too many years of Africa's being pushed to the global
background, it's heartening to see the world's attention
being focused on our continent. International support -
both financial and otherwise - is certainly needed to help
combat the severe poverty and disease gripping our nations.
But first and foremost, Africa needs to be allowed to take
its destiny into its own hands. Only self-reliance and
economic growth and development will allow Africa to become
a full member of the world community.
With the creation of the New Economic Partnership for
African Development in 2001, African leaders have committed
themselves to following the principles of good governance
and a market economy. Nothing is more central to this goal
than participating in world trade. As the presidents of two
of Africa's least developed countries - Burkina Faso and
Mali - we are eager to participate in the multilateral
trading system and to take on its rights and obligations.
Cotton is our ticket into the world market. Its production
is crucial to economic development in West and Central
Africa, as well as to the livelihoods of millions of people
there. Cotton accounts for up to 40 percent of export
revenues and 10 percent of gross domestic product in our
two countries, as well as in Benin and Chad. More than
that, cotton is of paramount importance to the social
infrastructure of Africa, as well as to the maintenance of
its rural areas.
This vital economic sector in our countries is seriously
threatened by agricultural subsidies granted by rich
countries to their cotton producers. According to the
International Cotton Advisory Committee, cotton subsidies
amounted to about $5.8 billion in the production year of
2001 to 2002, nearly equal the amount of cotton trade for
this same period. Such subsidies lead to worldwide
overproduction and distort cotton prices, depriving poor
African countries of their only comparative advantage in
international trade.
Not only is cotton crucial to our economies, it is the sole
agricultural product for our countries to trade. Although
African cotton is of the highest quality, our production
costs are about 50 percent lower than in developed
countries even though we rely on manual labor. In wealthier
countries, by contrast, lower-quality cotton is produced on
large mechanized farms, generating little employment and
having a questionable impact on the environment. Cotton
there could be replaced by other, more valuable crops.
In the period from 2001 to 2002, America's 25,000 cotton
farmers received more in subsidies - some $3 billion - than
the entire economic output of Burkina Faso, where two
million people depend on cotton. Further, United States
subsidies are concentrated on just 10 percent of its cotton
farmers. Thus, the payments to about 2,500 relatively
well-off farmers has the unintended but nevertheless real
effect of impoverishing some 10 million rural poor people
in West and Central Africa.
Something has to be done. Along with the countries of Benin
and Chad, we have submitted a proposal to the World Trade
Organization - which is meeting in Cancún, Mexico, in
September to discuss agricultural issues - that calls for
an end to unfair subsidies granted by developed countries
to their cotton producers. As an interim measure, we have
also proposed that least-developed countries be granted
financial compensation for lost export revenues that are
due to those subsidies.
Our demand is simple: apply free trade rules not only to
those products that are of interest to the rich and
powerful, but also to those products where poor countries
have a proven comparative advantage. We know that the world
will not ignore our plea for a fair playing field. The
World Trade Organization has said it is committed to
addressing the problems of developing countries. The United
States has convinced us that a free market economy provides
the best opportunities for all members of the world
community. Let us translate these principles into deeds at
Cancún.
Amadou Toumani Touré and Blaise Compaoré are the
presidents, respectively, of Mali and Burkina Faso.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/11/opinion/11CAMP.html?ex=1058929218&ei=1&en=2136f82abdfc13df
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