While export subsidies appear more obviously “trade distorting,” America’s cotton and other subsidies are in fact almost as bad. When subsidies lead to increased production with little increase in consumption, as is typical with agricultural commodities, higher output translates directly into higher exports, which translate directly into lower prices for producers, lower incomes for farmers, and more poverty in the Third world, including millions of cotton farmers eking out subsistence incomes in semi-arid conditions.