Confirmada vitória do Brasil contra subsídios norte-americanos a produtores de algodão

The US must do more to eliminate billions of dollars in illegal subsidies to its cotton farmers, a World Trade Organisation panel ruled on Tuesday in the latest assault on lavish US farm support.

The ruling, which confirmed a confidential interim judgment by the panel last July, said the US had not done enough to scrap payouts to cotton producers condemned by the WTO in 2005 in a landmark verdict following a complaint by Brazil.

The US said it was considering whether to appeal against the ruling. “We very disappointed with the compliance panel’s findings,” a spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative’s Office said. “We continue to believe that support payments and export credit guarantees under our programs are fully consistent with our WTO obligations.”

Critics say US cotton subsidies, amounting to $3bn-$4bn annually, unfairly boost US exports and depress prices on world markets, hurting millions of growers in poor African countries as well as in Brazil and elsewhere. Reform of the subsidies is particularly sensitive with the US now in the throes of an election campaign.

Unless an eventual US appeal against the panel verdict is successful, which trade experts think unlikely, Brazil will be able to seek WTO authorisation to retaliate against US trade worth $1bn or more a year.

The panel report came a day after Brazil and Canada secured a WTO investigation of US farm subsidies for a wide range of other commodities which they claim breach permitted limits.

In response to the 2005 WTO cotton verdict, the US scrapped or amended programmes considered to constitute illegal export subsidies. But the panel said yesterday that the US had failed to tackle two other trade-distorting subsidies – marketing loans and countercyclical payments that compensate farmers for low prices.

Washington is also under pressure in the Doha round of global trade talks to slash overall farm subsidies, and to go even further and faster on reducing support for US cotton farmers, a demand it has so far resisted. The USTR said yesterday that agricultural reforms should be discusssed in the world trade negotiations rather than being pushed through litigation.

Just last week the US Senate approved its version of a new farm bill that envisages spending in support of US agriculture of $286bn over the next five years, including additional help for US cotton mills. The House of Representatives has passed a similar measure.

Fonte Financial Times

Sem apoio, Brasil é o único competitivo em etanol

Valor de Genebra

A produção de etanol no Brasil deve alcançar 44 bilhões de litros em 2016, um volume 145% maior mais que as quantidades produzidas em 2006, segundo projeções da Organização para Cooperaçao e Desenvolvimento Economico (OCDE). A entidade dos países ricos considera que o Brasil é o único capaz de produzir etanol de maneira economicamente viável.

A entidade estima que, como a rentabilidade deverá aumentar, o crescimento da quantidade de cana-de-açúcar para etanol deve ser mais modesta em termos relativos no Brasil, mas aumentando em todo caso 120% nos próximos nove anos. A cana para etanol deverá representar 60% da produção total.

Nos Estados Unidos, a produção de etanol, que é feito a partir do milho, deve crescer 50% este ano e dobrar até 2016. O volume de milho utilizado para o biocombustível chegará a 110 milhoes de toneladas, 32% a mais. Na União Européia, o consumo de biocarburante (etanol e diesel) pode aumentar até 170%, com ligeiro aumento de importações e forte demanda por matérias-primas.

A OCDE considera que, enquanto o Brasil não precisa de subsídios, os Estados Unidos, Uniãoo Européia e outros países ricos, sem a mesma competitividade, estão é transferindo vários tipos de subsídios agrícolas distorcivos para etanol e biodiesel.

A constatação é de Stefan Tangermann, diretor de comércio e agricultura da Organização de Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE).

A entidade Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) calculou recentemente que o montante de subvenções dos países ricos para produção de biocombustíveis varia de ? 10 bilhões a ? 15 bilhões por ano, e tende a aumentar para os governos respeitarem suas metas de substituir gasolina por etanol e biodiesel.

"Está havendo uma mudança da direção de certos subsídios, sem duvida", disse Tangermann. Estudo da OCDE do ano passado, e que está sendo reatualizado a pedido da Suécia e Holanda, mostra que o etanol brasileiro é viável economicamente a partir de US$ 39 o barril de petróleo. Já a produção só teria sentido econômico nos Estados Unidos, Canadá e União Européia com o barril de petróleo variando de US$ 44 a US$ 145.

Enquanto deflagra o sinal de alarme sobre as subvenções para etanol nos países ricos, a OCDE não esconde sua impotência em relação ao algodão. A briga entre o Brasil e os EUA continua no centro dos debates. Mas a entidade até hoje não pode publicar o volume dos subsídios americanos ao produto, com base em suas estimativas, por causa do bloqueio de Washington.

Tangermann não escondeu que a questão "é politicamente sensível. Os Estados Unidso argumentam que algodão não faz parte das principais commodities nas estatísticas da OCDE, e portanto não deve ter a ajuda calculada. "Esperamos convencer os EUA...um dia", disse outro técnico da entidade. (AM)

Brazil claims WTO cotton victory

By John Rumsey in São Paulo, Frances Williams in Geneva and Eoin Callan in Washington

Financial Times

Published: July 27 2007 23:19 | Last updated: July 27 2007 23:19

Brazil on Friday claimed victory in its latest assault on US cotton subsidies at the World Trade Organisation, underscoring warnings by the Bush administration that the subsidy-laden farm bill under consideration by Congress risks triggering a wave of trade disputes.

Brazil said a confidential interim ruling by a WTO panel had gone in its favour.

The panel, due to issue its final decision in September, was set up last year to judge whether the US had fully complied with a 2005 WTO appeal verdict condemning several subsidy programmes for cotton farmers.

In response to that verdict, the US scrapped or amended programmes considered to be illegal export subsidies. However, Brazil says this left untouched some of the most trade-distorting subsidies, such as marketing loans and counter-cyclical payments that compensate farmers for low prices.

The US House of Representatives was set to vote late on Friday on a controversial $256bn, five-year farm bill that eliminates subsidies for farmers with more than $1m in adjusted gross income but continues to give generous subsidies in key areas including corn, cotton, soya beans and rice.

The bill was approved by the House agricultural committee on July 19.

The Bush administration has threatened to veto the legislation, saying it leaves the US vulnerable to WTO challenges similar to the case brought by Brazil over support for cotton farmers.

Pedro Camargo Neto, ex-secretary of production and trade at the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, dismissed the likelihood of Brazil bringing further cases, such as against soy, sugar and rice, where it would be more difficult to prove damages.

The Brazil ruling should embolden other countries, such as Mexico and Uruguay, to seek redress over rice subsidies.

A US trade official confirmed on Friday that the WTO panel had found that the changes made by the US “were insufficient to bring the challenged measures into conformity with US WTO obligations . . . we are very disappointed with these results”.

Brazil and its allies have pressed for big reductions in US and European Union farm support in the Doha global trade round.

The latest draft text by the chair of the Doha round’s agricultural negotiations calls specifically for deeper and faster-than-average cuts in cotton subsidies in developed countries.

Critics say such subsidies hurt not only Brazil but also millions of poor West African cotton farmers.

Still, with a successful conclusion to the round uncertain, the WTO’s dispute mechanism is increasingly seen as an alternative if ponderous route to the same end.

In 2005, Brazil, Thailand and Australia won another landmark case against EU sugar subsidies and this year Canada and Brazil have each filed new complaints alleging US overspending on trade-distorting farm aid.