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Brazil seeks WTO guidance for US cotton sanctions

Other News Materials 23 August 2008 03:23 (UTC +04:00)

Brazil is asking the World Trade Organization to outline the sort of sanctions it can impose against the U.S. to retaliate for American cotton subsidies.

Foreign Minister Celso Amorim on Friday said he had asked his nation's representative to the WTO to request that body "define the value of the retaliation" Brazil might apply.

Brazil first challenged U.S. cotton subsidies before the world trade group in 2002, arguing that they give U.S. cotton farmers an unfair advantage when exporting billions of dollars worth of the crop worldwide.

The U.S. lost its final appeal in the case last June, giving Brazil the right to seek WTO authorization for retaliatory trade sanctions until Washington scraps the subsidies.

Brazil notified the U.S. of its plans to pursue retaliation in July, Amorim told reporters, giving no other details.

The United States has long been the world's top cotton exporter, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but Brazilian exports are rapidly rising, AP reported.

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