By Jonathan Lynn
GENEVA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Developing countries called at the World Trade Organisation on Wednesday for an early deal on cotton, now that chances of an overall agreement in the Doha round have been put back well into 2009 at the earliest.
Dusting themselves down from last week's decision not to seek a breakthrough in the seven-year-old Doha round by the end of this year, many members want to implement an "early harvest" of what has been agreed so far -- and cotton is on the list.
Cotton is a litmus test of the WTO's ability to create a fairer trading system for developing countries.
West African cotton producers, backed by other developing nations, are leading the charge against trade-distorting U.S. subsidies which they say squeeze their own poor farmers out of the market.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told the body's 153 members on Wednesday there was most support for an early harvest on trade facilitation -- measures to make it easier to ship goods -- rather than on contentious issues such as cotton or bananas.
The reason is that the United States and European Union, for instance, are waiting to see the shape of an overall deal before deciding what to do on cotton or bananas respectively.
EXPEDITIOUS TREATMENT
But the respected chairman of the WTO's agriculture negotiations, New Zealand ambassador Crawford Falconer, said that cotton could be a candidate for early harvest treatment.
That is because the WTO agreed in August 2004 "to address cotton ambitiously, expeditiously and specifically", he told the meeting, called to discuss work plans for next year, WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said.
Ministers then agreed in Hong Kong three years ago to cut domestic subsidies for cotton faster and more steeply than supports for other farm products.
Besides the African cotton producers, states speaking on behalf of developing country alliances for Africa, the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and the least developed countries (LDCs) called for a deal on cotton.
Brazil, which coordinates the G20 alliance seeking a better deal in agriculture for developing countries and is an agriculture superpower in its own right, said cotton should be at the head of the queue in any early harvest arrangement.
U.S. ambassador Peter Allgeier did not mention cotton in his remarks to the meeting.
Last week, when he was considering calling ministers to Geneva to seek a deal on Doha, Lamy singled out cotton as one of three issues where there needed to be more signs of political will to compromise before ministers could convene.
On Friday, when he announced his decision not to go ahead, Lamy said the other two issues -- a safeguard for farmers in poor countries to deal with a flood of imports, and proposals for duty-free zones in industrial sectors like chemicals -- remained stumbling blocks.
But a deal on cotton now appeared within reach, he said.
Following the 2004 and 2005 decisions, four West African cotton producers -- Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali -- made a proposal which would see U.S. cotton subsidies cut by 82.2 percent over about two years against an overall 60 percent cut in U.S. farm subsidies over 5 years.
The United States has not yet made a counter-proposal.
This year's halving in cotton futures prices