DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE ASPECTS OF COTTON

TENTH PERIODIC REPORT BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL[1]

1   INTRODUCTION.. 2

2   CONTEXT. 2

3   IMPLEMENTATION.. 3

4   EVOLUTION OF COTTON DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE. 3

5   SOUTH–SOUTH COOPERATION ON COTTON.. 4

6   DOMESTIC COTTON SECTOR REFORMS. 5

7   WTO partners conference (july 2022). 5

8   FIFA-WTO MULTISTAKEHOLDER COOPERATION ON COTTON VALUE ADDITION
in the C-4 and côte d'ivoire (september 2022). 5

9   WORLD COTTON DAY 2022 and 2023. 6

10   CONCLUSION.. 7

ANNEX. 8

A. COTTON TRADE. 8

B. COTTON AREA. 9

C. COTTON PRODUCTION. 9

D. COTTON CONSUMPTION. 10

E. COTTON YIELD. 11

F. COTTON PRICES. 11

1  INTRODUCTION

1.  Since the last Periodic Report[2] to the Membership on the development assistance aspects of cotton, in June 2022, three rounds of the Director-General's Consultative Framework Mechanism on Cotton (DGCFMC) have been held, bringing the total number of such rounds to 40. The 40^th meeting was held on 7 November 2023.

2.  During the same period, three revisions have been made to the Evolving Table on Cotton Development Assistance (ET), a unique tool to monitor trends and trace the evolution of development-assistance projects supporting the cotton sector in beneficiary developing country Members. The last update is the 36^th revision[3] , circulated on 27 October 2023.

3.  I would like to particularly commend all the Members who have provided updates for the latest three revisions of the ET, namely: Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, the European Union, France, Italy, Japan, Mali, Mozambique, Netherlands and Thailand.

4.  I would also like to highlight the important roles played by multilateral and regional organizations who have actively participated in this process, including the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

5.  In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between FIFA and the WTO was signed in September 2022. The MoU facilitates cooperation in the context of the WTO cotton programme inter alia through the exploration of opportunities to include the C-4 and other cotton producing developing countries in apparel value chains. To this end, the FIFA-WTO partnership developed a project to support cotton value chain development in the C-4 and Côte d'Ivoire. The long-term objective of this project is to expand this support to facilitate regional cotton-textile value chain development.

6.  Finally, on 4 October 2023, UNIDO and FAO hosted World Cotton Day (WCD) 2023 in Vienna under the theme "Making cotton fair and sustainable for all, from farm to fashion". This event continued WCD's legacy of serving as an annual global platform for sharing technical and innovative approaches, establishing new collaboration opportunities, and raising awareness about the cotton sector. The WTO's Director‑General participated in person in this event.