NCC Chairman Sees Excellent Prospects
NCC Chairman Hardwick told attendees at the ’10 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans that although the US cotton industry still faces many challenges, there are excellent prospects for achieving profitable cotton production and processing.
The NCC–coordinated forum attracted more than 2,200 participants.
The Louisiana producer said he was pleased at how the industry’s collective resources – through the NCC -- have been effectively applied to an array of priority issues this past year. Among those, he said, were farm bill implementation, trade, emergency disaster assistance and a number of pressing technical issues.
Regarding farm bill implementation, Hardwick said the farm bill’s final passage came after more than two years of hard work with generally pleasing results.
Hardwick detailed the changes included in the new farm law regarding payment limits and eligibility. He said the NCC was very disappointed that USDA’s rules included significant changes to the provisions determining a person “actively engaged in farming” and submitted extensive comments to these proposed rules. In response to these comments, USDA recently announced finalization of a Memorandum of Understanding with the IRS to establish an electronic information exchange process for verifying compliance with adjusted gross income eligibility provisions for farm program and conservation program benefits. He said the NCC will monitor this USDA-IRS process that will evaluate program participants’ compliance with the Adjusted Gross Income provisions.
Hardwick reported that USDA also announced a less restrictive interpretation of the labor and management provisions of the actively engaged requirements for some entities for 2010. Otherwise, he said the NCC believes the eligibility regulations for 2010 will be unchanged.
He also reiterated the industry’s appreciation of Congressional efforts led by Senators Lincoln (D-AR) and Chambliss (R-GA) to ensure that regulatory changes for ’10 would not further undermine producers’ abilities to fully participate in farm programs.
On the trade front, Hardwick said the NCC remains active on several issues including the WTO Brazil case. The NCC responded to the Arbitration Panel’s findings and met with the US Trade Representative’s Office to examine options, including USTR calling for a new panel if Brazil announces retaliation and that retaliation is excessive.
Regarding the WTO Doha negotiations, he said the NCC continues to: 1) support a comprehensive agreement that does not include any reductions in commodity programs without proportionate documented gains in market access, 2) emphasize that the proposal presented at the ’08 Geneva ministerial should not be the basis for future negotiations, and 3) offer appreciation for USTR Ambassador Ron Kirk’s stance in defense of the U.S. cotton program in the face of continued, but unwarranted, criticism.
Hardwick told attendees the NCC is urging Senate and House leaders to support bills in both chambers that would provide emergency disaster assistance. He said the NCC also has been very active on a number of regulatory issues from clean water and climate change to enhanced Commodity Futures Trade Commission enforcement authority.
Beyond the near-term challenges that our industry faces, he said the NCC has implemented a plan for effectively addressing several important long term goals. That includes good progress on the Cotton Foundation’s Vision 21 project, which provides a three-pronged approach for addressing the critical issues facing the U.S. cotton industry.
Dr. Gary Adams, the NCC’s vice president, Economics and Policy Analysis, told attendees that key points for ’10 include: 1) maintaining mill demand at current prices is critical as manmade fibers will continue to pose serious competition for US cotton; 2) it is becoming more apparent that cotton stocks will decline, offering support to cotton prices; 3) heightened attention will be given to the competition for acres in the United States and abroad – with the recent rise in prices having placed cotton in a more competitive position than anytime in the past three years.
In another Cotton Production Conference General Session report, NCC Conservation Task Force Chairman Jimmy Webb said that task force is developing a strategic plan to “fully educate our membership on the importance of existing conservations programs and how better to take advantage of them.”
The Georgia cotton producer, who noted that he recently enrolled in the initial sign-up for the new Conservation Stewardship Program, said he believed the program can benefit producers by rewarding them for accomplished conservation programs and by providing enticements for enhanced practices.
“There are numerous other programs that can benefit producers if they are implemented fairly and fully understood,” Webb said. “It is becoming increasingly clear to the National Cotton Council that conservation programs will have increased significance in the national farm policy debate.”
