The 1992/93 world cotton situation features a close balance between production and consumption, with prices under pressure from relatively large stocks. Current price weakness should help spur larger use in 1993/94 while restricting production, meaning that stocks could be worked down slightly. However, tremendous uncertainties surrounding prospects in China and the former Soviet Union as well as global trade reform could alter the outlook for next season and beyond. China likely will remain the world's number one producer and consumer, although the United States continues to gain ground. The outlook for cotton over the balance of the decade is for world production and use to continue trending up from nearly 86 million bales today to 100 to 110 million by the year 2000.