The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade. New Preface and Epilogue with Updates on Economic Issues and Main Characters, 2nd Edition

EpilogueDevelopments 2009–2014

I: American Cotton Is Still King

Cotton Subsidies Redux

The Agricultural Act of 2014 (or ‘‘Farm Bill’') was signed into law two years late in February 2014. At 956 pages and with a nearly $1 trillion price tag, it was, like the 2008 Farm Bill (discussed in Chapter 4), the result of painstaking deal-making across multiple constituencies ranging from catfish farmers to food stamp recipients to the National Rifle Association to traditional ‘‘Big Ag'’ farmers of cotton, wheat, soybeans, and corn. In general, the agricultural community was happy with the outcome, while anti-hunger advocates were less happy, primarily because of cuts in food-assistance programs.¹

Cotton subsidies had a much more complex role to play in the deliberations than did other crop programs, however. In addition to the disparate domestic constituencies that were active in all of the negotiations, the cotton industry had the additional burden of addressing the WTO complaints by Brazil. U.S. cotton subsidies had been found in violation of global trade rules as early as 2004, and the ongoing dispute had become a thorn in the side of broader U.S.–Brazil diplomatic and business relationships. Many had lost patience with the long saga, and Brazil had been assured that their concerns would be addressed explicitly in the new Farm Bill. In effect, cotton would need its own Farm Bill.

‘‘Everyone knew that cotton would have to be peeled off,’’ Darren Hudson of Texas Tech told me ...