A bank shot (in the arm) for Mexican agriculture?
Brazil has finally won it’s case in a trade dispute with the United States over cotton subsidies. No real surprise, but the World Trade Organization appeals panel found that on the whole the U.S. payments breach global commerce agreements.
In other words, Brazil has every legal right to slap trade sanctions on the U.S. to recover the damages inflicted on their own farmers. They probably won’t, but they would have every legal right to break U.S. patents on pharmaceuticals for example, produce their own, and recover the billions they are owed through a different industry. More likely, they’ll slap huge import duties on U.S. made goods like steel and airplanes, or give subsidies to their own cotton farmers.
Mexican farmers have made a good case that they are harmed by U.S. subsidies in a number of areas. Specifically, export credits for grain. I don’t know if there is a similar mechanism for working out disputes within NAFTA, but the Mexicans now have a legal precedent if they chose to pursue it.
mexfiles.net 
“Farm subsidies are intended to help struggling family farmers. Instead, they harm those farmers by excluding them from most subsidies; financing the consolidation of small, individually owned farms into business conglomerates; and raising land values to levels that prevent young people from entering farming.
Farm subsidies allegedly are intended to be consumer- and taxpayer-friendly, but they cost Americans billions of dollars each year in higher taxes and higher food costs.”
– http://bloggingsbyboz.blogspot.com/2008/06/us-loses-cotton-dispute-again.html
This remind me of another quote:
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” – Eric Hoffer
Which is why we need change and renewal on a regular basis, both in governemnt, and in our daily lives.
The things we develope to solve a problem degenerate into a bigger problem if not expired at some point.
Steve Gallagher