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Plight of cotton farmers still unresolved -Sachin Kumar Sharma & Abhijit Das

-The Hindu Business Line

The WTO hasn’t got the US to cut its cotton subsidies. This has hurt developing nations and distorted global trade in the commodity

Recognising the importance of cotton in agriculture development, poverty reduction and international trade, World Trade Organization (WTO) observed World Cotton Day on October 7. While this initiative is laudable, it does not conceal the harsh reality that the WTO has failed repeatedly in its efforts to improve the plight of poor cotton farmers in African countries by getting the US to cut its subsidies to cotton. It compels a sober reflection on what was the problem, how it was sought to be addressed and what went wrong.

For the past two centuries, cotton was an embodiment of slavery and colonisation. The need for employing slaves to cultivate and harvest cotton — a commercially lucrative crop — in the southern states of the US ultimately led to the American Civil War. The role of cotton in economic exploitation of India by the British is too well-known to be recounted. At the WTO, developments over the past 16 years suggest that cotton continues to remain a symbol of exploitation, poverty and hypocrisy.

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