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“The cotton subsidies worsen poverty”
4/2004 |
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[ Wieczorek-Zeul in Benin ]
“The cotton subsidies worsen poverty”
At a visit to Benin at the end of February, German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul focused on bilateral development cooperation and support for the Cotton Initiative, in which the West African country is playing a significant part. The visit followed talks between the minister and State President Kérékou in Berlin in May 2003 during his visit to Germany. In Benin, Wieczorek-Zeul met with State Minister Amoussou, Agriculture Minister Sèhouéto and Trade and Industry Minister Akplonan. Besides bilateral development cooperation and the Cotton Initiative, the talks covered Benin’s position in the West African regional context and its efforts for poverty reduction.
Above all, the German minister wanted to have talks with cotton producers and their associations to gain a direct impression of their living standards. “I support the demands of Benin and the other West and Central South African countries that have joined forces in the Cotton Initiative,” she said. “These countries are striving for a reduction of the industrialised nations’ huge cotton subsidies, which make unfair competition for them. Benin demands fair world trade conditions for its cotton producers – not alms. If we want to give the developing countries an honest chance, we must meet these demands.” Due to the industrialised nations’ subsidies, the number of people in Benin that have to live on less than one US dollar per day has risen from 800,000 to more than one million, the German ministry points out. That means that with a population of six million the proportion of the country's poor has grown by almost 5 per cent.
“Only if we abolish these unjust subsidies can we really achieve our goal of shaping globalisation in a fair way. And only so can we regain the trust of the developing countries in the industrialised nations’ promises,“ Wieczorek-Zeul added. With the Cotton Initiative, Benin together with the West and Central African countries Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad pointed out during the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancún in September 2003 the negative impacts of the massive subsidies paid in some industrialised nations. The German minister supported this initiative from the start, such as with a joint event in Cancún in which the trade ministers of all four countries took part.
To be sure, observers point out that not only the industrialised nations’ subsidies but also corruption and mismanagement in the African cotton-producing countries are contributing to the fall in prices. The German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted an employee of the French development service, saying: “It is not the American subsidies that are the West African cotton market’s main problem, but the shortcomings of their own structures and the carefree fostering of corruption.”
Benin is a priority partner country of official German development cooperation, which focuses on issues like decentralisation and development of municipalities, drinking water supply, environmental protection and the sustainable use of natural resources in rural areas. The German government allocates about ¤ 16 million per year for these tasks.
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