EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 84/552

(2004/C 84 E/0630)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0222/04

by María Ayuso González (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(26 January 2004)

Subject: Cotton

France has recently presented a ‘European Cotton Initiative’ in support of Africa's cotton-based economies, advocating the reform of the Community cotton industry subsidy arrangement, so as to reduce the allegedly market-distorting subsidies granted by the EU.

Does the Commission believe that the French Government's major interests in the African cotton sector via the French Company for Developing Textile Fibres, which has a large network of branches in Africa, might underpin the way in which the Community negotiators tolerated the belligerency of a group of African countries at the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancún, when those countries attacked the Community arrangements?

The problem of African cotton's inability to compete with cotton from elsewhere and with other textile fibres will not be resolved by the disappearance of the Community cotton industry. Does the Commission therefore believe that the interests of a single country justify launching a proposal to reform the sector which could put an end to the viability of EU cotton farming, given that, moreover, our cotton production represents merely 2 % of world production, our exports 1,5 % of world trade, we import cotton virtually duty free, and we do not grant export refunds?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(26 February 2004)

The proposal for reform of the Community cotton aid scheme has no link whatsoever with the interests of the French-owned textile industry in West and Central Africa. Its justification can be found in the terms of the Luxembourg Council compromise of June 2003 whereby political agreement was obtained on fundamental reform of the common agricultural policy and the Commission was charged with presenting legislative adjustments for Mediterranean products on the same lines.

In the Doha Development Agenda negotiations the Union has pointed to the very marginal role of European cotton on the world market and in particular its very limited impact on the world price of the fibre. Not being a net exporter but on the contrary the biggest importer, the Union has to accept prices and does not determine them. At the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, following a request by a number of African countries for measures to address the depression in world market prices for cotton, the Commission proposed a constructive solution, within the overall DDA agricultural negotiations on the three pillars of market access, export support and domestic support, that addressed the trade issues related to the price depression. This solution was further elaborated in the Commission Communication Reviving the DDA Negotiations of 26 November 2003 that has been endorsed by the Member States.

The reform proposal for cotton is a response both to the compromise and to the abovementioned commitment. There is definitely no aim of abolishing Community production to the benefit of the production chain in any non-EU country.

We must also stress that the WTO initiative of these African countries concerned needs to find an adequate response. It is essential that the developing countries integrate themselves more fully into world trade and also into the negotiating fora for international trade, particularly the WTO.