NCC seeks cotton with agriculture in agreement at Doha round
01 Oct '05
4 min read
First, he said many commodity organizations believe USDA has gone too far in creating a more risk-based system for the U.S. export credit guarantee program, including seeking of legislation to remove a statutory cap on premiums it can charge users. Second, the NCC also has questioned the wisdom of ending the Step 2 component of the US cotton program in the middle of a marketing year and is of the opinion that “compliance measures and timeframes within agriculture must keep in mind the cyclical nature of farming and of marketing crops. Dramatic program changes should not be forced on farmers in the middle of their marketing year for their crops – neither in the United States, nor anywhere else.”
Lange also noted that there were some aspects of the Brazil Panel's decision that do not correspond to the official U.S. interpretation of the Uruguay Round Agricultural Agreement – an interpretation that was relied upon by the U.S. Congress when it approved that Round's agreements. He said he also believed that:
• The Panel linked the Peace Clause and the Subsidies Code in an unexpected manner, and the Brazil Panel produced vague deliberations on the concept of serious prejudice in that Code.
• The United States is still concerned about the degree to which the dispute Panel seemed to ignore trends toward more decoupled programs in the United States.
Lange noted that as WTO Members push forward on the Doha Round they will face situations involving language containing “diplomatic ambiguity,” which could enable countries to take away their preferred interpretation and, thus, result in a detrimental interpretation for U.S. agriculture.
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