By Catherine
Kent
In 2002, Brazil
received a favorable judgment before the World Trade Organization on the claim
that the United States’s cotton subsidies violate WTO principles of fair trade
by placing downward pressure on the world price. Brazil resolved to waive sanctions
on the U.S. and instead receive yearly payments. The U.S. has responded by continuing
its violations, and to use even more U.S. taxpayer money to do so. So what’s the
problem? Aside from these harmful international effects, the cotton subsidies
are part of a farm bill that take up a large amount of U.S. taxpayer dollars
that could arguably be used more effectively elsewhere; the temporary deal that
President Obama struck with Brazil in the beginning of October cost $300
million. Rather than reform the practice of subsidizing cotton farmers that
benefits so few at the expense of so many, the U.S. would sooner pay MORE to
continue this practice.
U.S. cotton subsidies, created
as part of a temporary form of relief for farmers during the Great Depression, have
far surpassed their intended function. It has essentially become a permanent law,
and the well-meaning subsidies that once made sense as necessary aid have morphed
into a massive spending bill that drains billions of taxpayer dollars into the
farming industry. Since the 1930’s, cotton subsidies have been steadily increasing as part of the farm
bill, in the form of federally subsidized farmers’ insurance to protect farmers
against the loss of crop or income. These subsidies have allowed the U.S.
cotton market to distort the international cotton trade and
harm the naturally alive cotton industries of other
nations.
