Brazil says it plans to impose punitive sanctions worth billions of dollars against the United States.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the planned appeal to the World Trade Organization, or WTO, came after the U.S. handed out illegal cotton subsidies to its cotton farmers.

"We have already communicated officially to the WTO in order to have these arbitrations panel convened. But the precise numbers I will leave to when it's there. But it's certainly very high because the harm that these subsidies caused is very big."

Trade officials refused to release their names. They said that Brazil has already asked the WTO for approval to impose up to four billion US dollars in annual sanctions against American goods and services.

Brazil first challenged US cotton subsidies at the WTO in 2002. It argued the subsidies give US cotton farmers an unfair advantage when exporting billions of dollars worth of the crop worldwide.

The US lost its final appeal in the case last June, giving Brazil the right to seek WTO authorization for retaliatory trade sanctions until Washington scraps the subsidies.

Meanwhile, Amorim also said that Brazil is considering starting another case with the U.S. over the tariffs it imposes on Brazilian ethanol.