He said developed economies, especially the US and the EU, have to slash trade-distorting subsidies they give to their cotton producers and market access for cotton-producing countries should be improved.

Lamy, also here for the WTO mini-ministerial meeting, maintains that rich economies need to eliminate export subsidies on cotton and that can only happen within the framework of the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Round that was launched in 2001.

The world cotton production is estimated to have declined 6 percent in 2008-2009 to 24.7 million tonnes, falling below the 25-million-tonne mark for the first time in five seasons.

In the July 2008 meeting of WTO trade ministers in Geneva, there was a failure to arrive at a consensus on the modalities in both agriculture and industry. As a result, a major opportunity was missed to finalise cotton-specific commitments, said Lamy.