The World Trade Organization says [US subsidies to cotton farmers] distort trade and lower prices, hurting farmers [in Côte d'Ivoire and elsewhere]... The U.S. is hardly the only country to support its domestic growers... [The] International Cotton Advisory Committee, a Washington-based association of producing and consuming countries...[says the] problem for [cotton] farmers...[in poor countries] is that subsidies encourage excess production, which pushes down prices... The U.S. is often singled out for criticism by Brazil and other developing nations because most of its crop is exported, said Terry Townsend, executive director of the cotton advisory committee.