GENEVA — The World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement body on Thursday agreed to establish a compliance panel to examine a complaint by Brazil that the U.S. has not fully implemented panel rulings to scrap billions of dollars in cotton subsidies found to be illegal under WTO guidelines.
“With respect to some of the recommendations and rulings, the U.S. has adopted no implementation measures at all, and the implementation measures it has adopted so far fall short of compliance,” said Cloaldo Hugueney, Brazil’s WTO ambassador.
David Shark, deputy U.S. representative to the WTO, strongly disputed the claims by Brazil, saying, “There is no basis for Brazil’s request. The United States has gone to extraordinary lengths to implement the recommendation and findings.”
He noted that on Aug. 1, the U.S. terminated the “Step 2” program, “eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars of annual payments to domestic users and exporters of U.S. cotton.” Shark also told delegates the U.S. had ceased operating two of the three export credit-guarantee programs that Brazil had challenged as being prohibited export subsidies.
“There are no exports under those programs today,” Shark said, adding that the remaining guarantee program has been “substantially modified” and “no longer constitutes an export subsidy.”
The compliance panel is expected to present its findings within 90 days.