03/07/05 U.S. farm programs and the WTO

03/07/05 U.S. farm programs and the WTO

Farm and Ranch March 7, 2005 A World Trade Organization Panel last week upheld nearly all the provisions of last year's WTO decision against significant portions of U.S. farm programs for cotton. The case against the U.S. had been brought by Brazil, and while the focus was on cotton there is concern about the ramifications for other federal farm program crops which include feed grains and wheat. Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, who expressed disappointment with the WTO decision, explains. Stallman: "This ruling is not directly applicable in most of its parts to other commodities because it was very specific to cotton, at least in terms of the domestic support programs. The thing to remember is that other countries may look upon this as a rationale to move forward with cases, but if they choose to move forward and litigate cases one upon the other, then that is going to diminish the opportunities for having a successful conclusion to the Doha WTO negotiations." Bill Gillon, an outside counsel for the National Cotton Council says the ruling does restrict U.S. policy options. Gillon: "This whole process now puts limits on U.S. policy options. Now, sometimes those limits are unclear, sometimes they are changing and they are always subject to negotiation, but the critical component here is that there are limits out there." Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss pointed out that nothing in the WTO ruling requires immediate action. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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