Abstract
Cotton has proven to be quite a divisive issue in the World Trade Organisation (“WTO”) following the launch of Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad’s campaign in 2003. The four countries, later dubbed ‘the Cotton-4,’ sought to bring the WTO’s attention to the dire effects that the subsidies being provided by developed countries to their cotton industries were having on the African nations’ economies. What initially started as a campaign solely by the Cotton-4 has now evolved to include the plight of all least developed countries (“LDCs”) whose economies rely, to a certain extent, on cotton. Cotton is Malawi’s fourth largest export behind tobacco, tea and sugar. It was identified in Malawi’s Growth and Development Strategy and Malawi’s National Export Policy as a priority crop that could lead to an increase in Malawi’s overall exports. However, despite these facts, Malawi’s cotton production and export levels have been dropping steadily. Thus, an assumption can be made that Malawi should have benefitted from any changes in the WTO that positively affect the cotton industries of the Cotton-4 and other LDCs. The paper is an examination of that assumption and shall ask the main question ‘How, if at all, has Malawi’s cotton industry benefitted from the Cotton-4’s campaign?’ It considers the different cotton initiatives that the WTO has embarked on and determines whether there has been a positive spill-over effect into Malawi’s cotton industry.
Cite As: Atupele Masanjala, Malawi’s Cotton Trade: Riding the Coattails of the Cotton-4, Volume 5, AfJIEL, (2025), 72-92.