Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) have introduced legislation (HR 5439) that would require U.S. contributions to a fund to provide Brazil with technical assistance and capacity building for its cotton farmers to be paid for by reductions in direct payments to U.S. cotton producers.
The assistance program for Brazilian cotton farmers is one of the conditions of an agreement between the two countries that is intended to avert trade sanctions by Brazil on U.S. imports in their long-running dispute at the World Trade Organization over U.S. subsidies to its cotton growers. Among other steps, the United States agreed to establish a $147 million assistance fund for Brazilian cotton producers.
Under the proposed legislation, USDA would be required to reduce the payment rate for upland cotton "as necessary so that reductions in the amount of direct payments made to producers for upland cotton offset the full cost of any U.S. contributions to the fund established by the United States and Brazil to provide technical assistance and capacity building, as part of the resolution of the cotton dispute brought by Brazil against the United States in the World Trade Organization."
