Describe some of the key controversies regarding global cotton trade between high cost and low cost cotton producers
What will be an ideal response?
Low cost cotton producers produce less cotton in total, but rely more on cotton exports for income. Their low incomes put them on the edge of survival and the fact that they make less in total to export makes cotton export revenues critical. High cost cotton producers depend much less on their cotton exports and have much higher incomes. High cost cotton producers are assisted through direct and indirect payments from their governments, tariffs on cotton imports, farm support programs including subsidized loans, insurance, marketing and promotion assistance, and revenue guarantees. These programs keep cotton production where it is less efficient and have the potential to harm living standards in developing nations and keep them from fully exploiting their comparative advantage in cotton.
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Which of the following policies have been suggested as ways to boost the growth of productivity?
A) tax cuts to boost saving and investment B) reducing the budget deficit by raising taxes and cutting expenditures C) increasing public investment in education D) redesigning and scaling back the regulatory apparatus of the federal government E) all of the above
If the supply of a good is relatively inelastic, this means that the quantity supplied of the good is
a. not very sensitive to the price of the good. b. highly sensitive to the price of the good. c. unrelated to the price of the good. d. none of the above.