Regional Trade Agreements

"However, behind these issues was the far greater problem of agriculture, where, again developing countries were intent to register their displeasure as the agricultural subsidy practices of the United States and the European Union. For example, four West African producers of cotton demanded a sectoral initiative to eliminate cotton subsidies in countries such as the US, the EU, and China, but they received a response suggesting that African countries should diversify their production, a message they interpreted as telling them to stop growing cotton. This response inflamed the Africans, and added to the antipathy that threatened to spiral out of control at the conference"
          I found this part of the lecture interesting. I had no idea that west African countries produced cotton. The four main west Africans countries that produce ccotton on a large scale are Benin, Burkina Faso,Chad and Mali.To further understand more about the  issues west African countries  face as a result of larger countries subsidy practices in cotton industry I decided to research more. while researching I came across a website www.theguardian.com, there is an article on this site that discuss on this subject matter. As per article "The Fairtrade Foundation calculates that the US, the European Union, China and India have in that time paid their cotton farmers $47bn (£29bn) in subsidies in total - flooding the international market and pushing down the global price for competitors, especially in west Africa". This makes it difficult for the west Africans farmers and the countries at large.
          The Farmers  loose lots of income as a result of this have a hard time caring for their families  and are unable to provide employment opportunities to others. These  four large cotton producing countries are unable to provide work for their citizens,  and to develop the infrastructure such as building  roads, schools  and economy of the country. To help these Countries, and decrease or stop the subsidy practices, The UK government is committed to working towards making principles of fair trade to be integrated and reflected in the global trading system.
 In my opinion it is a great thing for any country  to be independent and not depend on other countries for basic necessities even if agriculture is the backbone or a percentage of their economy. Producing goods and being able to participate in trade on a global level will be good for These countries because it will help decrease the poverty rate and allow the countries to have some form of independence and stability.