Protect the Cotton-4

Fair trade is a trading partnership that provides sustainable development for poor producers and workers. The concept has been developed as response to current trade rules, which have not delivered for the overwhelming majority of small and vulnerable producers and poor workers in developing countries. We are writing to you today in honour of World Fair Trade Day, run by the WFTO.

Cotton is the most used natural fibre in the world and should be the ‘white gold’ that propels ten million West African farmers out of poverty. But the West African cotton industry is obstructed by a wall of subsidies paid by the United States and European Union to their farmers. Combined, the US and EU have spent $32bn on their cotton farmers over the past nine years. The result is to dampen down cotton prices for West African farmers, with devastating effects.

With an average GDP per capita of $637, and among the least developed countries on earth, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali (the Cotton-4) rely on cotton more than any other commodity for their export revenues. These countries also produce cotton more cheaply than anywhere else – a competitive advantage that logically should place them in a prime position to benefit from the world’s ever increasing desire for cotton products.

In 2003 the Cotton-4 brought this issue to the negotiating table at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) but have yet to secure a settlement. The Great Cotton Stitch-Up, a campaign spearheaded by the Fairtrade Foundation, explains that breaking through the wall of cotton subsidies hinges on reform of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the US Farm Bill – both of which are under review over the next two years.