By Charles Cobb Jr.
Washington, DC

U.S. and European subsidies and tariffs "support injustice," Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure told the House International Relations Subcommitteee on Africa, Tuesday, summarizing written testimony that he presented for the record.

Toure said he was representing all African nations and the devastating effect of subsidies on Malian cotton illustrates the harm that agriculural subsidies - now totaling more that US$300bn in the United States and Europe - are causing to agriculture across the continent. "We have decided to pull the alarm bell."

Toure is the first Afican President or head of state to testify before the subcommittee. "We needed to bring some weight to this," said one member of the president's party. Agricultural issues, a key element in the political structure of a small group of powerful legislators, are not usually taken up by the Africa subcommittee.

But there is a crisis, said Toure. Agriculture subsidies that keep prices artificially low contribute significantly to the continued economic deterioration in Mali and other cotton-producers in Africa. There have been "serious consequences on our economies," he told the lawmakers in his written testimony. "Mali lost 1.7 percent of her GDP and 8 percent of her export receipts; Burkina Faso lost 1 percent of her GDP and 12 percent of her export receipts; Benin lost 1.4 percent of her GDP and 9 percent of her export receipts.

And low prices for agricultural products lead to rural depopulation which, in turn, leads to urban unrest and "breeding grounds for terrorism."