On June 23rd 2008 the EU Council adopted a new programme of cotton-sector reforms following the European Court of Justice decision on September 7th 2006 to annul the earlier measures. These reforms include a commitment to decoupling 65% of current cotton-sector support and the extension of support to national programmes for the restructuring of the EU cotton-ginning industry and the enhancement of quality and marketing of EU cotton.
Meanwhile discussions at the ACP Council on the ‘EU-Africa cotton partnership’ highlighted concerns over the ‘concrete results that have been attained so far’. ACP representatives called for the EC and member states to ‘speed up disbursement of the resources announced to promote the strengthening and development of the cotton sector in Africa’. Concerns were also expressed at the lack of progress in the WTO on cotton issues, although EC support on this issue was welcomed.
Press release IP/08/993, June 23rd 2008
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/993&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
In many respects the process of cotton-sector reform has little impact on African cotton producers with developments in US policy being the over-riding concern. In terms of EU support to cotton-sector adjustments, similar problems appear to be faced to those arising in the banana, rice and sugar sectors, suggesting a systemic problem in effectively deploying EC assistance to adjustment of agricultural production in ACP countries.