Vilsack: Brazil cotton case ‘headed in right direction’; won’t accept EU decision not to import hormone-fed beef
February 20, 2014 | 03:07 PM
By JERRY HAGSTROM
The Brazilian government’s decision today to ask the World Trade Organization to set up a panel to analyze the new U.S. farm bill rather than than engage in trade retaliation over the U.S. cotton case means resolution is “headed in the right direction,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today at a news conference on the sidelines of the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum.
A World Trade Organization panel found in 2009 that U.S. cotton subsidies damaged the interests of Brazilian farmers.
Brazil’s decision to ask for the panel was revealed by Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, after participating in a meeting of Foreign Trade Chamber (Camex), a division of the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Fibre2Fashion, a textile industry publication, said today, based on a report by Agencia Brasil.
The United States agreed to make payments to the Brazilian Cotton Institute while Congress wrote the farm bill, but the Agriculture Department stopped those payments last fall in an apparent attempt to put pressure on Congress to finish the bill.
Figueiredo said today that Brazil is not going to immediately take any retaliatory measure against the U.S. suspension of the payments and that, while trade retaliatory measures are always open, the Brazliian government would continue to negotiate with the U.S., saying that its primary interest is solving the issue to serve Brazil’s interests.
Tom Vilsack
The National Cotton Council said today that it believes the Brazilian decision means the case is “resolved,” but Vilsack said he would not go that far.
“It is fair to say [the Brazilians] are willing to enter into negotiations and discussions that could lead to a resolution,” he said.
Congress made changes to the cotton title in the farm program and the Agriculture Department has made changes in export credit programs used by the cotton industry, Vilsack noted.
Brazil’s decision to ask the WTO to examine the farm bill to see if it means the United States will reach compliance “shows we are headed in the right direction,” Vilsack said, adding that he would not say the case is resolved.
Vilsack also said he would not accept the statement by European Union Trade Commissioner Karl De Gucht on Wednesday that the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will not lead the European Union to import U.S. hormone-fed beef.
The secretary said that there is “not likely” to be a trade agreement between the United States and the European Union if the EU does not “deal seriously, fully and comprehensively” with agricultural issues.
Vilsack said beef, biotechnology and other sensitive agricultural issues have to be on the table, and added that he was “happy to say this publicly.”
“There has to be a negotiation,” he added. “It is not appropriate in my view to take a line-in-the-sand attitude.”
