Cheating on cotton doesn't benefit anyone

By JAY AMBROSE
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
Brazil doesn't cotton to American cotton, or at least to the billions of dollars in subsidies that the U.S. government dishes out to cotton growers, and the World Trade Organization thinks Brazil has a point. The WTO is right.
Says the WTO in a preliminary ruling, the amount of the subsidies breaks the rules of the game, causing prices around the world to be lower than they otherwise would be and giving American farmers an unfair advantage in grabbing market share. Those paying the penalty are farmers in poor countries who could be making a lot more money with their cotton if it wasn't for the cheating.
And it is not just those farmers who are being cheated. It is American taxpayers whose own businesses are not subsidized but who dish out dollars so that the cotton farmers and growers of other crops can be relieved of competitive pressure.
It's a farce
What we have here is a farce that helps keep the world poor and ultimately even makes the United States poorer than it would be. Europe is an even worse offender, say those who have done the calculations and found that total rich-country agricultural subsidies come to something like $300 billion a year.
The speculation in a New York Times account is that Brazil, which initiated the case against the United States, is going to win in the final ruling and that the victory could mark the beginning of the end of these subsidies to farmers around the world. That would be a major step on behalf of the enriching possibilities of free trade.
XJay Ambrose is director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard Newspapers.