IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 990 

Encouraging the accelerated removal of agricultural subsidies of industrialized 

countries to alleviate poverty and promote growth, health, and stability 

in the economies of African countries. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 14, 2008 

Mr. CHABOT (for himself, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. FLAKE, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. ROYCE, 

Mr. BLUMENAUER, and Mr. MORAN of Virginia) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Encouraging the accelerated removal of agricultural subsidies 

of industrialized countries to alleviate poverty and promote growth, health, and stability in the economies of 

African countries. 

Whereas the world’s industrial countries, such as the United 

States and the countries of the European Union, spend 

an estimated $1 billion a day on agricultural subsidies— 

approximately six times the total amount of official aid 

provided to developing countries; 

Whereas trade-distorting agricultural subsidies have historically encouraged overproduction in industrialized countries, while undermining farm economies and driving off 

agriculture-related investment in developing countries; 


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•HRES 990 IH 

Whereas more than 70 percent of Africans depend on the agricultural sector for a significant portion of their livelihood; 

Whereas depressed agriculture in African and other developing countries frustrates the global effort to reduce poverty, which contributes to disease, including the HIV/ 

AIDS pandemic, as well as instability and threats to 

United States security; 

Whereas according to an Oxfam International report, the 

United States’ share of the global cotton market grew to 

37 percent, making it the world leader in cotton exports, 

despite cotton prices falling below the cost of United 

States production, because of United States subsidies; 

Whereas more than 10 million people in West and Central 

Africa alone depend directly on cotton production for 

their subsistence, exporting an estimated 90 percent of 

cotton produced; 

Whereas the Institute of Economic Affairs in Great Britain 

estimates that European Union agricultural subsidies 

have reduced African exports of milk products by more 

than 90 percent, livestock by nearly 70 percent, meat by 

almost 60 percent, nongrain crops by 50 percent, and 

grains by more than 40 percent; 

Whereas the average dairy cow in Japan produces $7.50 a 

day in subsidy income, while 75 percent of African people 

live on less than $2 a day; 

Whereas through the International Monetary Fund and the 

World Bank Structural Adjustment Programs, least developed countries have been required to end agricultural 

subsidies expeditiously, even as developed countries have 

been slow to eliminate their own; 


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•HRES 990 IH 

Whereas developed countries agreed to negotiate a multilateral end to agricultural subsidies through the World 

Trade Organization (WTO) with a target date of January 1, 2005, for agreement on when and how to phase 

out subsidies, but this target date has been missed; 

Whereas the Group of 8 (G–8) developed countries, meeting 

in Gleneagles, Scotland, from July 6–8, 2005, issued a 

statement recommitting member states ‘‘to eliminating 

all forms of export subsidies’’; 

Whereas the G–8 member states also agreed at the 

Gleneagles meeting to pursue a successful conclusion to 

the WTO Doha Development Agenda, which includes 

harmonizing international trade rules; 

Whereas the majority of least developed countries (LDC) are 

African countries, including 25 of the 30 LDC members 

of the WTO; 

Whereas African economic output currently constitutes only 

two percent of global trade, partly as a result of tradedistorting trade policies by industrialized countries; 

Whereas the International Food Policy Research Institute reported in Bread for the World’s 2003 hunger report that 

agricultural trade liberalization of all industrial countries 

would lead to a 45 percent increase in the net agricultural trade of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as a 5.1 percent increase in the annual income of farmers and agroindustries in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding the Republic 

of South Africa; 

Whereas the International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that every $1 in African agricultural income produces an additional $1.42 increase in gross domestic 

product; 


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•HRES 990 IH 

Whereas, despite the highest economic growth rate in a decade at 5.4 percent, most African countries need to rapidly address trade capacity issues to withstand the reciprocated opening of their markets under WTO rules; and 

Whereas President George W. Bush, speaking before the 

United Nations General Assembly in September 2005, 

said the United States is prepared to eliminate all subsidies, tariffs, and other obstacles to the free flow of 

goods and services between the United States and the 

world’s poorest nations: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that the Government of the United States and 

3 the governments of other industrial countries— 

4 (1) should examine ways to mutually accelerate 

5 the elimination or phase-out of agricultural subsidies 

6 at the earliest possible time; 

7 (2) should work with their African counterparts 

8 in identifying and removing non-tariff barriers to Af9 rican agricultural imports; 

10 (3) should work to mutually remove production, 

11 infrastructure, and transportation impediments to 

12 more equitable agricultural trade; and 

13 (4) should work with the governments of least 

14 developed countries in Africa to build trade capacity 

15 to minimize the economic impact of an opening of 

16 African markets to foreign goods. 

Æ 


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