GENEVA, Sept 16: The United States called on Friday on emerging market nations to lower their tariffs on imported cotton.

“Some of the most important markets for cotton where the Africans or we are going to sell cotton have some of the highest tariffs,” a senior US government official said at the World Trade Organization, citing China, India and Pakistan as the main culprits.

Referring to the latest round of talks aimed at increasing free trade among WTO members, he said: “We would certainly expect those tariffs to be part of the negotiations.”

The latest round of WTO talks, launched in Doha in 2001, was meant to have been concluded by the end of last year but has been plagued by spats between competing interests.—AFP