Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
reason for ths lmtaton s that constructng a mult-regonal CGE model
of the Chinese economy requires detailed regional input-output, income,
consumption and trade data, all of which are often difficult to obtain.
Although difficulties exist, the regional impacts of WTO accession
deserve the same attenton as the sectoral mpacts. Chna s a bg country
in many senses, with huge regional differences in geographic and economic
terms. Regonal ncome dsparty worsened along wth economc reform and
growth durng the 1990s. Income dsparty has become so large that the
central government announced ts 'West Development Strategy' n 2000.
Analyss of sectoral effects s a part of the nvestgaton nto the regonal
effects of WTO accession; therefore, a regional analysis could provide a
more comprehensve pcture of the mpacts.
Impact of WTO accession on China's regional economies
Chna has made a WTO-plus commtment. It promsed not only to reduce
signiicantly tariff and non tarff barrers but also to open up sectors
such as telecommunications, banking, insurance, asset management and
dstrbuton of foregn nvestment. It also agreed to abde by all WTO rules.
Moreover, China has been forced to accept discriminatory treatment in two
mportant rule-based areas: safeguards and antdumpng (Lardy 2002).
It is difficult to accommodate all of China's commitments in one
simulation. Rather, this study investigates the impact of the most obvious
and smplest commtment: the requred tarff cut. Even ths s not as easy
as t may seem. Chna's mport tarffs are often subject to exempton
and reducton under specal arrangements that make the effectve tarff
rates significantly different from the statutory rates. For example, the
average statutory tariff rate was 16.4 per cent in 2000, while tariff revenue
accounted for only 4.03 per cent of the value of imports (National Bureau
of Statstcs of Chna 2001).
The database of the model represents the Chinese economy in 2000, with
the average tariff rate being 16.2 per cent, which is close to the statutory
tarff rate.
2
The tarff rates used n ths study (Table A6.2) are manly drawn
from the GTAP Database 5 wth some revsons based on other studes (for
example Wang 2000, Ianchovichina and Martin 2001 and Anderson, Huang
and Ianchovchna 2002). The WTO tarff rates are only approxmately
