Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The direct impact of the WTO quota for grain imports
Major changes after WTO accession
There wll be several mportant changes n Chna's agrcultural polcy
followng from ts WTO accesson commtments.
Chna adopts a tarff quota for total gran mports at a 1 per cent
token tariff rate. The quota will be 18.31 million tonnes in 2002,
20.2 million tonnes in 2003, and increasing to 22.16 million tonnes
in 2004 (Table 5.5). According to the accession agreement, the 22.2
mllon tonnes of tarff quota s to be shared between the state and
private trading enterprises, and all unused state quotas are to be
transferred to prvate enterprses.
The above-quota tariff rates for the major grains will be 65 per cent,
and for soybeans the tariff rate will be 3 per cent.
The average tarff rate for all agrcultural products to be reduced
from 22 per cent to 17.5 per cent.
The average rate of domestc support for agrcultural products wll
be zero. There wll be no export subsdes.
Other non-tariff restrictions on imports of agricultural products,
such as licensing, are to be eliminated. This includes restrictions
on imports of wheat from the north-west areas of North America,
which may have TCK disease.
The economc mpact of the latter changes s not clear and the
issues are strongly debated. More detailed information and analysis are
needed. The above-quota tarff rate s not lkely to be mportant because
experences wth gran mports show lttle lkelhood of gran mports
exceeding the quota. In the following, the focus is on the impacts of the
tariff quota on agricultural production, farmers' incomes, employment,
and consumers. These mpacts appear to be the most mportant. The
mpact of the elmnaton of domestc support for agrcultural products s
also dscussed.
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