WTO Cotton case : a fly in the ointment?

The first question asked of House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson today in a teleconference was not about the farm bill, but the news of the WTO case on U.S. cotton subsidies.

From the AP:

The World Trade Organization largely ruled against the United States in an interim decision that it has failed to scrap a series of illegal subsidies paid out to American cotton growers, U.S. and Brazilian trade officials said Friday.WTO panels rarely change their findings between preliminary and final rulings, and the apparent result is a major victory for Brazil's cotton industry and West African countries that have claimed to have been harmed by the American payments.The interim ruling was handed out confidentially to the parties late Friday. A final verdict, expected in September, could open the door for billions of dollars (euros) worth of Brazilian trade sanctions against the United States.

TK: Peterson was not phased by this report when raised by Chuck Abbott of Reuters. He said an appeal will take three to six months, and seemed to indicate the USTR has not been as aggressive as they need to be in defending U.S. farm programs.