Cotton: No Rich Pickings Yet

Accounting for around 5% of GDP and 70% of exports, the cotton sector is vital to the economy. Furthermore, poor farmers directly dependent on cotton income represent one third of Benin’s 8mn population. The outcome of global trade talks and, in particular, negotiations with the US on the elimination of trade-distorting cotton subsidies will therefore have important repercussions in Benin and other West African countries. These states have been pressing the US to end export subsidies and other means of support to domestic cotton producers which keep world cotton prices artificially low.

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