World Cotton Day observed

World Cotton Day observed

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-I – Agricultural crops

In news

• The 2nd World Cotton Day was observed on 7th October, 2020.

Key takeaways

• World Cotton Day was launched at the initiative of the Cotton-4 (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali) by the World Trade hosted on 7th October 2019.
• It was launched in collaboration with the secretariats of the UN, FAO, UNCTAD, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).
• Objective: (1) To recognize the importance of cotton as a global commodity grown in over 75 countries across 5 continents; (2) To highlight its central role in job creation and maintaining economic stability in several least-developed countries.

Important value additions

Cotton Four

• Cotton is discussed at the WTO for: (1) the trade reforms needed to address subsidies and high trade barriers for cotton; (2) the assistance provided to the cotton sector in developing countries.
• These various tracks of discussion have been developed over the years as a response to a series of proposals to address the cotton sector tabled by four African countries — Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali — known as the Cotton Four or C4.