The World Trade Organisation yesterday gave Brazil the green light to impose $295m (£181m) of sanctions on US goods over Washington’s failure to scrap illegal subsidies to its cotton farmers.
However, the trade retaliation granted by a WTO arbitrator was barely a tenth of the $2.7bn Brazil had asked for. Brazil will also not be able to carry out its threat to break US drug patents or retaliate in services unless subsidies rise substantially from 2006 levels.