Uruguay Plans WTO Complaint

Uruguayan officials say the country will file a complaint with the World Trade Organization against US rice subsidies, following a similar case by Brazil against US cotton aid. Brazil has asked the WTO to authorize $3 billion in sanctions against the US after the trade arbiter backed a claim that cotton payments to American farmers are illegal because they breach commitments signed in 1994. Uruguay is the world’s seventh-largest rice exporter and shipped 750,000 metric tons of the grain in 2003 and 2004.