ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: Pakistan will support proposals of four African countries seeking a complete elimination of domestic support and export subsidies on cotton by January 2009.

Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan told Dawn on Thursday that two modified proposals on cotton discussed at the eighth cotton sub-committee of the WTO recently and would be taken up at the upcoming Hong Kong ministerial conference were in favour of cotton producing countries, including Pakistan.

Four African proponents — Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali — and the EU brought new proposals on cotton.

Mr Khan said a gradual reduction in trade distorting support on cotton would help Pakistan get maximum market share for the commodity in the international market.

The African four proposed that export subsidies on cotton need to be eliminated by the end of this year, and 80 per cent of trade distorting domestic support be scrapped by the end of 2006, with 10 per cent each in 2007 and 2008, completing the total elimination by January 1, 2009.

They also proposed that disciplines ensure that only authorized domestic supports remain intact; substantial improvements in market access, with duty-free and quota-free access for cotton and cotton products from the least-developed countries; an emergency fund to help deal with depressed international prices; and technical and financial assistance for the cotton sector in Africa.

The EU proposal called for ministers to endorse more ambitious and faster commitments on cotton than that of agriculture as a whole and describe in greater detail what the EU itself was willing to do both as part of a deal and autonomously.

The proposal was spelt out under headings based on three key words of the July 2004 framework: ambitiously, expeditiously, and specifically. It assumed the recalibrated objectives for Hong Kong mean that ministers will not be deciding on numbers. It also says how far it is willing to go, repeating what it had said in previous meetings.

The EU proposes that ministers agree to larger reductions in cotton than in agriculture as a whole in all three pillars (for export subsidies, which are going to be eliminated anyway, this would be by earlier elimination).

The EU says it is willing to eliminate all duties, quotas and other quantitative restrictions on imports from all countries, the most trade-distorting domestic supports (AMS), and all export subsidies, from day one (the first day that the final agreement is implemented), and to apply disciplines on Blue Box subsidies from day one.

Moreover, on an autonomous basis, the EU is prepared to give an assurance to cotton producer countries that all these commitments will already be in place, as far as the EU is concerned, from 2006.

Brazil of the G-20 and Cuba and Egypt of the African group broadly supported the African four proposals. The US said it agreed that the outcome on cotton should be more than the average.