enthalpy

Monday, July 11, 2005


Brazil is mad as hell and they're just not going to take it anymore. U.S. cotton subsidies, that is.
US cotton subsidies which have fuelled a long-running trade dispute with other countries are to be scrapped, the Bush administration has revealed.

The US government will ask Congress to pass legislation to repeal subsidy programmes after the World Trade Organization ruled they were illegal.

The move came on the same day that Brazil threatened to raise tariffs on US imports in retaliation.
This might actually turn into an interesting test case for the WTO's power. Brazil knows, just like everyone else does, that American farmers would come much closer to turning lead into gold than they would turning a profit from cotton without government subsidies. [also here.]



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