African maize farmers may benefit from rising demand for corn for ethanol and also from a Canadian action against the US over corn subsidies at the WTO.
It appears from the post on Allafrcia.com, that
Support to US maize producers over the last two years has averaged nearly $9bn a year and, while world maize prices declined significantly over the last three years, the US's maize production actually increased from 256-million tons in 2003-04 to a record 300-million tons in 2004-05, slightly decreasing to 282-million tons in 2005-06.
If this is the case then that makes at least four levels of subsidy for US biofuels. Federal, state and local for production and National for corn growing. Removing trade barriers such as these are vital if the benefits of extended bioethanol production is to be spread around the world and not just to farmers in the US.