Fairtrade Foundation's Statement on European Commission CAP reform proposals unveiled today
Aurelie Walker, the Fairtrade Foundation’s Trade Policy Advisor:
We welcome the Commission’s focus on intentions to make the Common Agricultural Policy greener.
But the Fairtrade Foundation is outraged at the Commission’s proposals to maintain trade distorting subsidies in specific types of farming which are deemed important for social and economic reasons.
The Commission today outlined its intention to improve the competitiveness of European agriculture. But its communication today revealed a damaging loophole for the continuation of a cotton subsidy regime that since 2001, has paid out €5.94 billion to 100,000 European cotton growers.
Agriculture plays a critical role in the social and economic development within Europe. And the CAP is designed to support this. This loophole is completely unnecessary. Support to cotton farmers in Greece and Spain should be fully decoupled from production.
The Commission’s CAP Towards 2020 communication contradicts Lisbon Treaty commitments to ensure the impact of its actions on developing countries are taken into account as well as commitments made at the World Trade Organisation to eliminate trade distorting subsidies.
This is because European trade distorting cotton subsidies have a catastrophic effect on West African cotton producing nations who rely on ‘white gold’ for the bulk of their export revenues. These are countries where just 45% of children go to school and life expectancy is less than 50 years.
Subsidies from Europe and the US dampen prices and squeeze demand for West African cotton so compounding poverty in some of the poorest nations on earth.
European cotton farmers receive the highest amount of cotton subsidies in the world per pound they produce. Currently cotton is trading at $1.62 per pound on world markets. Europe’s cotton subsidy is $2.50 per pound - more than 50% higher than the globally traded cotton price. This distorts world trade.
The Fairtrade Foundation this week has launched a campaign aimed directly at the European Commission arguing it should phase out and eliminate its trade distorting cotton subsidies and specifically to ensure cotton subsidies are included as an amendment onto CAP reform legislation to be voted on in June 2011.
Key Fairtrade Foundation Trade Policy experts will be available for interview and comment today.
Please call
Nick Mathiason 020 3301 5021 or 07799 348 619
Or Martine Parry 020 74407695 or 07826 827 791