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Statement on Cotton Trade in Zimbabwe ahead of the Sixth Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Kong from 13-18 December 2005
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD)
November 14, 2005

We are a grouping of small-scale farmers, students, women's organisations, trade unions, human rights lawyers and community based networks, coming under the banner of the Zimbabwe Cotton Trade Campaign facilitated by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD). We are part of a community of citizens' networks working in southern Africa, West Africa and across the world fighting for trade justice and against corporate-led globalisation. As the Sixth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Hong Kong approaches, we are concerned by lack of progress and the lip-service paid to agricultural trade negotiations. Our particular concern is the lack of urgency in the elimination of illegal and illegitimate agricultural subsidies causing depressed prices of cotton. Families are now faced with life threatening low incomes.

More than 300 000 households are involved in cotton farming in Zimbabwe. The bottom-line is that more than 1500 000 innocent people have been pushed into subsistence poverty, misery and early mortality. Further more, thousands of workers in the cotton chain are affected by this unfair agricultural trade regime.

It is known that the unfair low prices that cotton is fetching on international markets are due to trade distorting subsidies of the United States and other Northern governments. The subsidies have led to dumping of cheap cotton by countries such as the United States which pour billions of dollars in cotton subsidies.

Domestically, we are also aware that cotton merchants are making unjust super-profits on the back of starving and dying communities.

The grim reality is that Zimbabwe's cotton farmers have been deprived of their right to products of their labour and a decent livelihood. Reduced to price-takers, farmers wait for price announcements after the harvest, regardless of input credits and labour costs. Existing government support initiatives are insignificant and this is leading some farmers to abandon the crop altogether.

With macro-economic instability- hyper inflation and inconsistent exchange rate regime- low international prices have exacerbated poverty for cotton farmers.

The consequences are grave. Untold suffering has visited communities in Gokwe, Guruve, Chipinge and other cotton dependent areas in Zimbabwe; making them more vulnerable to infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Multitudes are dying every day from preventable diseases. Girl children are being thrown out of school. The country is suffering from increased foreign currency losses. Further access to farm inputs (fertiliser, fuel etc.) is affecting the livelihoods of cotton farmers and the general Zimbabwean population.

Following the Brazil case in the WTO, we are aware that the US cotton subsidies are illegal. We are also encouraged by the progress made by the four West Africa countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad) in the WTO.

We have no doubt that the trade injustices in the cotton sector are human-made disasters; therefore grossly unjust and highly unethical. We therefore demand:

• The US and EU to eliminate illegal trade distorting cotton subsidies as stated in the July Framework agreed to by WTO Member states;
• The Zimbabwe government to elaborate a specific position and treatment of cotton in agriculture trade positions towards Hong Kong.
• The Zimbabwe negotiators to participate in the Cotton Sub-Committee under the WTO and provide leadership to Southern Africa in efforts to resolve the cotton sectoral initiative before Hong Kong;
• The Zimbabwe government to develop a comprehensive cotton sector support policy to address the coherence of both trade and development aspects of the cotton chain in the areas of domestic support; export competition and market access.
• The Zimbabwe government to ensure that the voice of cotton producers is heard in all production and pricing negotiations that are of interest to small scale farmers.
• Domestic merchants not to take advantage of poor farmers.

Visit the ZIMCODD fact sheet

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