The Ministerial Declaration that emerged from the recently concluded World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in Hong Kong continued the efforts of members to reform and liberalize the world cotton market “…ambitiously, expeditiously, and specifically” (WTO, 2005). The special...

The United States has issued a proposal to the world trading community outlining several steps to jumpstart the stalled World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on agriculture. The proposal is intended as a challenge to members of the WTO to improve market access through “ambitious tariff...

Economic Fundamentals - Real GDP growth is projected to be stable at about 2.5% per year in developed countries and be around 5% in developing nations. A more favorable exchange rate between China’s currency and the U.S. dollar may make U.S. cotton more affordable to China’s growing cotton...

This study attempts to summarize information on farm policies being used for seven major crops–corn, cotton, rice, sorghum, soybeans, sugar, and wheat–by a group of 21 countries representing both developing and developed nations. Overall, the study concludes that agriculture has a special...

The Global Fibers Model developed at the Cotton Economics Research Institute at Texas Tech University was used to generate 10-year projections of cotton and textile production, mill use, and trade for 24 countries/regions under specified assumptions for macroeconomic variables, weather, and...

The proposed 2007 farm bill contains fundamental shifts in policy option mainly dictated by a desire to render the U.S. agriculture “more market oriented’ and the programs less costly to the U.S. treasury. The proposal adopts a revenue-based counter cyclical payment while maintaining the...

Cotton is India’s main cash crop. It contributes to the livelihood of 60 million people and accounts for 30 percent of the country’s agricultural domestic product (Barwale et al., 2004). Total cotton acreage in India is estimated at 9 million hectares, the largest in the world (Gandhi,...

Brazil made a formal complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Panel against U.S. cotton programs in 2003, alleging that these subsidies depressed world cotton price and were injurious to Brazilian farmers. The petition was supported by Australia and West and Central...

Economic Fundamentals - Real GDP growth is projected to be stable at about 2.1% per year in developed countries and 5.8% in developing nations. A more favorable exchange rate between Chinese Yuan and the U.S. dollar may make U.S. cotton more affordable to China’s growing cotton textile industry.