Background and objectives

The dispute about cotton policies recently has emerged at the international arena. It derived firstly, in 2002, from the Brazilian complaint before the WTO against some measures of the Farm Bill in the USA. It was relayed in September 2003 by the Cotton Sectoral Initiative introduced by four African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali) during the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancùn (Mexico). This African Initiative, consisting of demanding the total abolition of cotton subsidies, notably in the USA and in the European Union, has contributed to capture the international attention about the unfairness of the competition in the cotton world market. Since the Cancùn episode, the resolution of the African Initiative has led to open the "Cotton Dossier" whose treatment has become part of the conditions to move forward the conclusion of the WTO Doha Round.

From the researchers' perspective, the current dispute is confusing, frustrating and misguiding.

There is commonly confusion in the discourse about cotton support policies and cotton subsidies which are only a particular form of support measure. It is not clear enough whether the demanded abolition concerns only specific subsidies or global support measures to cotton.

The current situation is frustrating to scientists as they contribute to the debate, indirectly, and only through the estimation of price distortion linked to cotton subsidies. Scientists hence are at best behind the curtain, when their research works are related to the assessment of the effects of cotton subsidies on the world price. The exclusive attention to this price effect is leading to totally put aside all other studies on other socio-economic effects related to the implementation of cotton policies worldwide. This situation is clearly frustrating to many scientists who are addressing these effects, furthermore when the estimation results of price distortion can vary a lot and have risen up great controversy. A neutral organization like FAO has pointed out many shortfalls in correctly estimating the price effect linked to the implementation of cotton subsidies.

Finally, the prevailing situation is misguiding in totally overlooking the dynamic feature of cotton policies in all countries which have been implementing them. No attention is really paid to the attempts to carry out new measures, based upon new economic mechanisms to achieve better effectiveness and efficiency for the related countries, with reduced impacts on other countries. In other words, the current dispute is following a radical approach of total and abrupt elimination of cotton support policies while such an approach could hardly be acceptable to many countries.

In spite of existing cotton conferences on regular basis and enjoying international calibre, scientific exchanges specifically on cotton policies seldom gain real attention. The annual Beldwide Cotton Conference is US-Organized and mainly US-oriented. The World Cotton Research Conference, occurring every four years, actually has achieved international stature, but social sciences are still occupying minor place till recently and it is not yet providing specific forum for discussion on cotton policies.

The "Conference on Cotton Policies" is organized

by ISSCRI (http://www.isscri.org) to compensate the lack of addressing more globally the various effects of cotton policies, from the social, economic and environmental perspectives. The Conference is designed to provide additional information about a broad range of impacts on the cotton sector caused by government support policies.