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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated

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From: LindyBill	7/2/2005 12:07:29 AM
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Underreported News Missed Deadline Media Blog Stephen Spruiell Reporting 07/01 10:34 PM In all the excitement over CNOOC’s bid for Unocal and the Boeing vs. Airbus dispute, the already-too-small media contingent devoted to covering trade matters forgot that the World Trade Organization ordered the United States to remove its cotton export subsidies by today. To its credit, the Financial Times of London ran this story about the United States’ weak response to the deadline. After losing a WTO case to Brazil, the United States was supposed to eliminate both programs it uses to subsidize cotton exports: export credit guarantees and direct payments to U.S. cotton exporters (the “Step 2” payments explained here). The U.S. Department of Agriculture did what it could by promising to eliminate the export credit programs. However, the Step 2 payments — by far the worse offenders — remain untouched. It would be easy for a few enterprising reporters for major news sources to tie in the cotton issue to the overall media obsession over trade with China. According to U.S. Department of Commerce statistics, U.S. cotton exports to China have increased by 833 percent since 2002. Step 2 payments evidently facilitated this expansion, making it easier for Chinese textile mills to put American textile mills out of business. (Not that Americans having access to cheap textiles is a bad thing, but lawmakers who bloviate about the Chinese menace should be aware that U.S. farm policy is lending the Chinese a big hand.) The WTO cotton case could create major changes in U.S. agricultural policy for the first time since the Great Depression. Today’s deadline for starting the change process — and the United States’ refusal to meet it — should have been bigger news this week." media.nationalreview.com

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