Chinese Cotton Industry Faces Possible Loss Of Subsidies

MAIGAITI, XINJIANG, CHINA - OCTOBER 20: A 76-year-old women picks cotton on October 20, 2005 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region city Maigaiti, China. Xinjiang is one of China's largest cotton production areas with about 1/3 of the total output of cotton in China. The U.S. is proposing removing subsidies on agricultural products such as cotton by 2010 during the WTO's Sixth Ministerial Conference held on on Dec. 13-18 in Hong Kong. Failure on cotton agreements contributed to stalled talks in the last WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico on 2003. (Photo by Chien-min Chung/Getty Images)