Industrial Cluster: The Impact Of American Agricultural Policy On Cotton

?

The United States mainly promotes the development of agriculture through legislation and relevant policies. Since the full implementation of the food and agriculture act of 1977, the United States has revised and improved its agricultural subsidy policy every five years according to the domestic and international situation

In 2002, Brazil appealed the issue of US cotton subsidies to the world trade organization, and the dispute was finally ended only when the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2014. This incident also led to a big change in the US agricultural act of 2014 compared with the previous version, from the yellow box policy to the green box policy.

According to the agreement on agricultural products of WTO, the green box policy means that the government provides agricultural support subsidies without or with the least trade distorting effect through the service plan; The yellow box policy usually distorts production and trade. The bill introduced in 2018 is basically the same as that of 2014 and will expire in 2023.

The supporting policies related to cotton in American agricultural act are mainly divided into commodity plan and risk guarantee plan, among which risk guarantee plan is divided into policy insurance and disaster assistance. Since the substantial adjustment of the agricultural act in 2014, the commodity program is currently dominated by marketing assistance loans, which aims to ensure that cotton growers can obtain basic income when the market price is low, so as to stabilize domestic cotton production.

Policy insurance mainly takes yield and income as the subject matter. When cotton yield and income do not reach the expectation, it can get certain compensation protection. Disaster assistance mainly refers to the government will provide insurance for cotton growers when natural disasters such as meteorological disasters and diseases and insect pests cause losses to cotton growers. At present, the United States has constructed a cotton support policy system with insurance as the main factor and price and income support plan as the supplement.

The United States has experienced the change from a big cotton yarn export country to a large cotton export country. At present, as a major cotton producer and exporter, the United States still plays a crucial role in the global cotton market. American cotton industry has the characteristics of high degree of mechanization, excellent varieties, high degree of standardization and comprehensive service and technical support.

At present, the United States is in a situation where the planting area is relatively stable, the unit output continues to increase, the proportion of domestic consumption is small, and the export volume is increasing. According to the U.S. Department of agriculture's forecast of cotton supply and demand in 2022 / 23, the U.S. cotton production is 3.5924 million tons; The consumption was 544300 tons; The import volume was 22000 tons; The export volume was 3156900 tons; At the end of the period, inventory and warehouse consumption ratio decreased to 631400 tons and 17%.