WTO Allows Brazil To Sanction US $295 Million

Brazil will be allowed to impose sanctions of $295 on the United States each year, a fraction of the $2.5 billion that the country sought.

Brazil targeted U.S. goods and drug patents for nearly $3 billion, while the United States argued that the sanctions should not exceed $30 million. The World Trade Organization's ruling came on Monday, seven years after Brazil appealed to the WTO to put an end to U.S cotton subsidies.

The United States pays its 25,000 cotton farmers more money in subsidies than the entire gross national income of most of the cotton-producing countries in Africa put together, which - according to Brazil's complaint to WTO - damages developing countries' abilities to export and sell their goods. The WTO has condemned the United States' actions, stating that they help U.S. producers undersell competitors and depress world market prices.