December 4, 2007 (LPAC)--The plunge in value of the U.S. dollar is hitting hard, hitting especially poor nations dependent on agro-commodity exports, which traded in dollars on globalized markets. Cotton is a prime example.

In West Africa, cotton producers are now receiving nine percent less for their exports than recently. Cotton accounts for five to eight percent of the Gross Domestic Product of producing nations in West Africa, with many rural areas in the Sahel entirely dependent on cotton exports. The decline in the cotton industry may trigger mass migration, according to the head of the National Federation of Cotton Producers in Senegal. Many younger West Africans will attempt to go overseas. The farmers are desperate; the ginning and marketing concerns have posted big losses over two seasons. In the poor cotton-producing areas, the population was already subsisting on less than one dollar a day. Under these conditions, a shift in the dollar exchange rate can eliminate a month's worth of food, Bloomberg reports.

In France, aerospace producers are warning about the threat of the falling dollar forcing them to outsource production to 'cheap-dollar' areas. Today's lead editorial of the French daily Le Figaro, titled, "The Trap of the Dollar," by Nicolas Barr, asserts that those who rejoice in the fall of the dollar are tragically mistaken.