Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he wants to help cotton growers deal with the lowest market prices in seven years, but “there are some serious legal issues involved” in the cotton industry’s request for subsidy payments on cottonseed. “I want you to know, we want to help,” Vilsack said during a town hall session at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention in Orlando. “It may take a partnership between us and Congress to be able to get the kind of help that is really important and really sufficient. We’re going to do everything we can.”
“If there are roadblocks or legislative problems, we’re going to ask Congress to help us remove some of those barriers,” Vilsack said in response to a question from a cotton grower from Texas, the No. 1 cotton state. Among potential roadblocks are the cost of cottonseed supports — unofficially estimated as high as $1 billion a year — and whether the USDA would have to cut other programs to offset the cost. As well, he said, the United States does not want to invite a WTO complaint against its farm supports or inspire trade retaliation by Brazil, which won a WTO case against the previous U.S. cotton program.
Cotton has a separate subsidy program called STAX, a combination of revenue insurance and a minimum support price, but only a fraction of growers are enrolled in it. The National Cotton Council, an umbrella group for the industry, has requested that cottonseed be eligible for payments under the subsidy programs offered to grain and soybean farmers as one of the “other oilseeds” included in the programs. “This is a tough situation,” said Vilsack, referring to low cotton prices. “We want to help but not create difficulties for other commodities … ”
“It starts with what can you legally do,” Vilsack said during a news conference afterward. “That’s the answer I look forward to getting soon.”