Unraveling the Fabric of Our Lives

In an editorial yesterday, The New York Times supported the World Trade Organization's ruling that the United States is in violation of global trade rules with its farm subsidy practice. The editorial goes further to attack the same practices in Europe. Herewith is the entire editorial in the event the article is archived:

The World Trade Organization struck a huge blow for poor countries the world over last week when it upheld a ruling that the billions of dollars America spends to subsidize its cotton farmers violate global trade rules. It is long past time for the United States to take responsibility for its dreadful cotton subsidy program, which, by distorting the real price of cotton on the world marketplace, has managed to drive poor farmers from Chad to Benin to Burkina Faso out of business.

The ruling gives the Bush administration, which has been pushing for broad farm trade reform, the chance to do what it should already be itching to do. Representative Clay Shaw of Florida put it into proper perspective last week when he said of the trade organization's decision: "It certainly gives you cover to make some of the corrections needed."

No kidding. Those corrections should have been made decades ago, but we'll take what we can get. Indeed, we would like to see the W.T.O. take on the subsidies that Europe lavishes on its farmers; they exceed America's. It is almost inconceivable to think of defending a system that helps farmers in the rich world at the cost of farmers in the developing world. Brazil, which brought the case against the United States, rightly argued that the American subsidies increased cotton production, which, in turn, helped destroy Brazil's export markets.

Organizations that care about global poverty, from the United Nations to the World Bank to Oxfam, have argued that reducing subsidies would do much to help poor economies. We are glad the W.T.O. has joined the chorus, and urge America, Europe and Japan to chime in too.