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.