16/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - WTO/Doha - no progress on cotton. Meeting at the WTO within the Cotton-4 (C-4) group, on the sidelines of the WTO ministerial conference held Friday 16 December, Burkina-Faso, Benin, Mali and Chad deplored the lack of any significant progress since 2005 on the issue of subsidies for cotton, their key export product. Despite proposals promised by the United States on the development aspects of the dossier, the C-4 has made no headway with regard to its commercial aspects, in particular with regard to subsidies paid by Washington to American producers. Fearing that the fall in world rates will make the wealthier countries resort to further subsidies with distortionary effect, the C-4 reiterates its call for a “fair and equitable solution” to be found to the cotton issue, and urges the United States and the EU to make known their reform proposals within the Farm Bill and CAP respectively. Finally, the C-4 does not rule out using the dispute settlement mechanism, if necessary. (EH/transl.jl)