[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 990 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 990

   Encouraging the accelerated removal of agricultural subsidies of 
   industrialized countries to alleviate poverty and promote growth, 
      health, and stability in the economies of African countries.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 14, 2008

 Mr. Chabot (for himself, Mr. Payne, Mr. Flake, Mr. Berman, Mr. Royce, 
  Mr. Blumenauer, and Mr. Moran of Virginia) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Encouraging the accelerated removal of agricultural subsidies of 
   industrialized countries to alleviate poverty and promote growth, 
      health, and stability in the economies of African countries.

Whereas the world's industrial countries, such as the United States and the 
        countries of the European Union, spend an estimated $1 billion a day on 
        agricultural subsidies--approximately six times the total amount of 
        official aid provided to developing countries;
Whereas trade-distorting agricultural subsidies have historically encouraged 
        overproduction in industrialized countries, while undermining farm 
        economies and driving off agriculture-related investment in developing 
        countries;
Whereas more than 70 percent of Africans depend on the agricultural sector for a 
        significant portion of their livelihood;
Whereas depressed agriculture in African and other developing countries 
        frustrates the global effort to reduce poverty, which contributes to 
        disease, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as instability and 
        threats to United States security;
Whereas according to an Oxfam International report, the United States' share of 
        the global cotton market grew to 37 percent, making it the world leader 
        in cotton exports, despite cotton prices falling below the cost of 
        United States production, because of United States subsidies;
Whereas more than 10 million people in West and Central Africa alone depend 
        directly on cotton production for their subsistence, exporting an 
        estimated 90 percent of cotton produced;
Whereas the Institute of Economic Affairs in Great Britain estimates that 
        European Union agricultural subsidies have reduced African exports of 
        milk products by more than 90 percent, livestock by nearly 70 percent, 
        meat by almost 60 percent, nongrain crops by 50 percent, and grains by 
        more than 40 percent;
Whereas the average dairy cow in Japan produces $7.50 a day in subsidy income, 
        while 75 percent of African people live on less than $2 a day;
Whereas through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Structural 
        Adjustment Programs, least developed countries have been required to end 
        agricultural subsidies expeditiously, even as developed countries have 
        been slow to eliminate their own;
Whereas developed countries agreed to negotiate a multilateral end to 
        agricultural subsidies through the World Trade Organization (WTO) with a 
        target date of January 1, 2005, for agreement on when and how to phase 
        out subsidies, but this target date has been missed;
Whereas the Group of 8 (G-8) developed countries, meeting in Gleneagles, 
        Scotland, from July 6-8, 2005, issued a statement recommitting member 
        states ``to eliminating all forms of export subsidies'';
Whereas the G-8 member states also agreed at the Gleneagles meeting to pursue a 
        successful conclusion to the WTO Doha Development Agenda, which includes 
        harmonizing international trade rules;
Whereas the majority of least developed countries (LDC) are African countries, 
        including 25 of the 30 LDC members of the WTO;
Whereas African economic output currently constitutes only two percent of global 
        trade, partly as a result of trade-distorting trade policies by 
        industrialized countries;
Whereas the International Food Policy Research Institute reported in Bread for 
        the World's 2003 hunger report that agricultural trade liberalization of 
        all industrial countries would lead to a 45 percent increase in the net 
        agricultural trade of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as a 5.1 percent 
        increase in the annual income of farmers and agro-industries in sub-
        Saharan Africa, excluding the Republic of South Africa;
Whereas the International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that every $1 
        in African agricultural income produces an additional $1.42 increase in 
        gross domestic product;
Whereas, despite the highest economic growth rate in a decade at 5.4 percent, 
        most African countries need to rapidly address trade capacity issues to 
        withstand the reciprocated opening of their markets under WTO rules; and
Whereas President George W. Bush, speaking before the United Nations General 
        Assembly in September 2005, said the United States is prepared to 
        eliminate all subsidies, tariffs, and other obstacles to the free flow 
        of goods and services between the United States and the world's poorest 
        nations: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the Government of the United States and the governments of other 
industrial countries--
            (1) should examine ways to mutually accelerate the 
        elimination or phase-out of agricultural subsidies at the 
        earliest possible time;
            (2) should work with their African counterparts in 
        identifying and removing non-tariff barriers to African 
        agricultural imports;
            (3) should work to mutually remove production, 
        infrastructure, and transportation impediments to more 
        equitable agricultural trade; and
            (4) should work with the governments of least developed 
        countries in Africa to build trade capacity to minimize the 
        economic impact of an opening of African markets to foreign 
        goods.
                                 <all>