IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 461 
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 
SEPTEMBER 27, 2005 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. ROYCE, Mr. FLAKE, 
and Mr. MEEKS of New York) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on International Relations 
RESOLUTION 
Encouraging the accelerated removal of agricultural subsidies 
of industrialized countries to alleviate poverty and pro-
mote 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 histori-
cally encouraged overproduction in industrialized coun-
tries, while crushing farm economies and driving off agri-
culture-related investment in developing countries;
•HRES 461 IH 
Whereas more than 70 percent of Africans depend on the ag-
ricultural sector for a significant portion of their liveli-
hood; 
Whereas depressed agriculture in African and other devel-
oping countries frustrates the global effort to reduce pov-
erty, 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 de-
veloped countries have been required to end agricultural 
subsidies expeditiously, even as developed countries have 
been slow to eliminate their own;
•HRES 461 IH 
Whereas developed countries agreed to negotiate a multilat-
eral end to agricultural subsidies through the World 
Trade Organization (WTO) with a target date of Janu-
ary 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 trade- 
distorting trade policies by industrialized countries; 
Whereas the International Food Policy Research Institute re-
ported 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 agricul-
tural trade of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as a 5.1 per-
cent increase in the annual income of farmers and agro- 
industries in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding the Republic 
of South Africa; 
Whereas the International Food Policy Research Institute es-
timates that every $1 in African agricultural income pro-
duces an additional $1.42 increase in gross domestic 
product;
•HRES 461 IH 
Whereas, despite the highest economic growth rate in eight 
years at five percent last year, 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 sub-
sidies, 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 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that the Government of the United States and 
the governments of other industrial countries— 
(1) should examine ways to mutually accelerate 
the elimination or phase-out of agricultural subsidies 
at the earliest possible time; 
(2) should work with their African counterparts 
in identifying and removing non-tariff barriers to Af-
rican agricultural imports; 
(3) should work to mutually remove production, 
infrastructure, and transportation impediments to 
more equitable agricultural trade; and 
(4) should work with the governments of least 
developed countries in Africa to build trade capacity 
to minimize the economic impact of an opening of 
African markets to foreign goods. 
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