Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
01
Achieving food security in China
Implcatons of WTO accesson
Chunlai Chen and Ron Duncan
The mpact of Chna's entry nto the World Trade Organzaton (WTO) on ts
agrcultural sector has been a major concern of the Chnese government
and one of the hottest topcs among polcymakers and academcs nsde and
outside China. In 1998, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural
Research (ACIAR) funded a multi-year research project (ADP/1998/128) to
examne the mpacts of Chna's WTO accesson on ts agrcultural sector. The
project was a jont undertakng by researchers from Australa and Chna.
The project began before China's accession to the WTO, but it was
antcpated that the accesson applcaton would be successful and that t
was therefore mportant to understand fully the mpact that the accesson
commtments could have wthn Chna. There was a concern to see that
Chinese policymakers appreciated the benefits that would flow from trade
liberalisation. At the same time, it was understood that the trade reforms
would lead to structural adjustments that would nvolve the reducton
of some activities, with the accompanying loss of employment and asset
values. It was beleved that t was desrable for polcymakers to have an
understanding of these consequences, as this would reduce the chances of
the adopton of poor polces n response to any perceved or real adverse
mpacts. Another objectve of the project was to analyse varous polcy
optons n order to offer nput to Chna's polcymakng process.
