DALLAS, TX – National Cotton Council Chairman James Echols said
U.S. cotton is on the threshold of economic recovery because it will
be working under substantially improved farm policy and benefiting
from improved retail demand for cotton products.
Addressing
delegates at the NCC’s annual meeting here today, Echols said
the NCC’s immediate objective is "to finalize a new farm bill that
will apply to this year’s crop and will not impose additional
significant restrictions on benefits. I remain optimistic that we
can achieve this short-term objective."
Noting that the U.S. retail market for cotton textile products
fell by about 1 million bale equivalents in 2001, Echols said the
NCC also will press hard to solidify Administration support for
textile trade provisions that are favorable to the U.S. textile
industry in every trade agreement under consideration.
"I am pleased that the Council has been asked to be the
coordinating organization for the Textile Alliance, a group formed
several years ago to foster consensus-building and coordinated
action on textile trade issues," he said. "To our textile members, I
would say that we will take that coordinating role seriously and
will work very hard to help the organization deliver on its defined
mission."
The Memphis merchant said international trade issues would be
among the NCC’s highest priorities in the months ahead. Among those
will be attention to a new World Trade Organization round, renewal
and expansion of the Andean Trade Pact and discussions on a Free
Trade Agreement of the Americas.
"The cotton industry has a major stake in the outcome of these
initiatives," he said.
For the longer term, Echols said the U.S. cotton industry must
ensure "our government does not unilaterally discontinue or
disproportionately reduce assistance for our farmers."
He said he believed that: 1) agricultural subsidies will still
flourish worldwide and pressure will continue on reducing them,
especially those considered to be trade distorting, and 2) farm
policy will be on-going rather than every five years or so and
linked to international trade initiatives and other national
priorities. "In the future, I believe we should become more
proactive in integrating farm policy with rural development and
environmental preservation," Echols said. "To some extent, this
simply means that we need to do a better job of making all interests
understand that good farm policy should be the leading component of
progressive rural development and good farm policy does make a
valuable contribution to environmental preservation."
In recapping 2001 activity, Echols said the NCC worked to restore
industry profitability in an economic climate that saw domestic mill
consumption drop to the lowest level and carryover stocks rise to
the highest level since the mid-1980s; 124 textile mills close with
a corresponding loss of 60,000 jobs; and New York prices fall to 30
cents during harvest season.
"If not for the marked improvement in export sales of raw cotton,
our industry would be in even worse shape," he said. The 9.8-million
bale export estimate for this marketing year, he noted, will be the
highest in 75 years and will boost U.S. cotton’s share of world
cotton trade to 34 percent, compared to the normal 25 percent.
Among NCC achievements in 2001 were persistence in:
- seeing that most of U.S. cotton’s priorities were included in
a House-passed farm bill and in the bill passed by the Senate
Agriculture Committee;
- advancing Caribbean Basin Trade Preferences Act implementation
and lessening the impact on U.S. textiles of other trade
initiatives, including China’s accession to the WTO;
- getting increased appropriations for the boll weevil and pink
bollworm eradication programs;
- increasing funding for Cotton Council International’s overseas
market development efforts;
- keeping Bollgard registered and crop protection materials
available;
- working through the NCC’s Quality Task Force to improve fiber
quality;
- improving communications and reducing overall information
dissemination costs; and
- maintaining an all-time high membership support level despite
tough economic conditions.
As the unifying force of the U.S. cotton industry, the
Memphis-based National Cotton Council brings together industry
representatives from the 17 cotton-producing states to work out
common problems and establish programs of mutual benefit for its
28,000 members. The NCC’s mission is ensuring the ability of all
industry segments to compete effectively and profitably in the raw
cotton, oilseed and U.S.-manufactured product markets at home and
abroad.