Image via WikipediaPerhaps, our annual payment of $147,000,000 to Brazil's cotton industry should be called a bribe. In 2002 Brazil filed a claim with the WTO that its cotton farmers were being hurt by the U.S. subsidies to U.S. cotton farmers. The WTO agreed, we didn't and continued the subsidies. Brazil contacted American companies with a good export business to Brazil and threatened to impose duties on these products. Lobbyists for this group of companies contacted our leaders and the U.S. agreed to pay Brazilian cotton farmers to go away.
In 2010 we gave our cotton farmers $835,000,000, which was less than the $2 billion plus of 2009. In the past 15 years we've given them $31 billion. Three quarters of this subsidy went to only 10% of the cotton farmers. Do you get the feeling that something is wrong here?
Hat tip to our Winsted correspondent.
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