Today, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced the U.S. and Brazil have reached agreement to settle the longstanding Cotton case dispute in the World Trade Organization. Vilsack says the resolution has far reaching effects in that now Brazil won’t be able to retaliate against many U.S. ag commodities which could have brought devastating economic consequences.
Vilsack says now USDA can proceed with full implementation of the farm bill without any harmful impacts.
Under the agreement Brazil has also agreed not to bring new WTO actions against U.S. cotton support programs while the current farm bill is in force or against agricultural export credit guarantees through the GSM 102 program.