IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE ASPECTS OF THE

COTTON-RELATED DECISIONS IN THE 2004 JULY PACKAGE AND
PARAGRAPH 12 OF THE HONG KONG MINISTERIAL DECLARATION

Item 2C - Coherence between Trade and Development Aspects:
Update on the Development Aspects of Cotton

Report of the 29^th Round of the Director-General's

Consultative Framework Mechanism on Cotton^[1]

19 June 2018

1  INTRODUCTion

1.1  The 29^th Round of the Director-General's Consultative Framework Mechanism on Cotton (DGCFMC) was held on 19 June 2018, under the chairmanship of Deputy Director-General Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff.

1.2  The Chairman welcomed, on behalf of the Director-General, all participants including experts from capital and the Cotton-4^[2] (C-4), and noted that the development assistance aspect of cotton was a dynamic area of WTO cooperation with a significant margin for expansion.

2  STATEMENT BY THE C-4 COORDINATOR

2.1  The Ambassador of Benin, speaking on behalf of the C-4 and other cotton-producing countries, thanked the Chairman and the Agriculture and Commodities Division for their support of the development assistance aspects of cotton and the various initiatives taken to facilitate more dynamic discussions at the DGCFMC.

2.2  He reaffirmed the importance of promoting the African cotton sector and the interest of LDCs in the framework mechanism on cotton. He noted that the DGCFMC had embraced a new pace of work which should be maintained. Indeed, the presence of bilateral, regional, and multilateral donors/development assistance partners was a welcomed development in the work of the DGCFMC. Discussions with partners such as the ACP, GIZ-Germany^[3], the European Union as well as development banks, was of great interest to the C-4 in supporting the development of value chains and enhancing cotton farmers incomes.

2.3  He noted the longstanding and strategic interest of the C-4 for cotton and cotton-related products and stressed that policies supporting those products should be in line with WTO rules. He stated that the June 2018 Secretariat Symposium on agricultural policies landscape had shed light on many of the driving forces behind the policies distorting cotton markets. He also noted that the Symposium had allowed Members to share information, experiences as well as good practices, and thus hoped that outcomes of the event would usefully inform the cotton negotiations.