Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chna made substantal commtments to freer trade n agrculture n
its accession agreement. Underlying these commitments, therefore, is a
substantial shift away from its previous basic agricultural policy position, which
had an emphasis on food 'self-sufficiency' and restrictions on food imports.
As might be expected, there remains strong support for food self-sufficiency
policies and agricultural import restrictions, but these policies have very high
economc costs for the country because they mantan resources n actvtes
that do not use them efficiently. Therefore, one of the aims of the research
project was to demonstrate the high costs of food self-sufficiency policies, in
order to reduce the chances of any move back towards such polces.
The research project had a strong general equilibrium focus, which has
been followed through the use of global and China-specific computable
general equlbrum models and the analyss of the mpact of all of Chna's
WTO accession commitments, not only its agricultural commitments. The
focus on general equilibrium research has two related justifications. First,
when analysing the impacts of agricultural policies, we should look beyond
the agrcultural sector because agrcultural polces wll have economy-wde
impacts. Analogously, trade policy initiatives in other sectors will have
impacts on the agricultural sector. Further, the impact of macroeconomic
policies on particular sectors can be as important, if not more important,
than sector-specific policies. Second, it is clear from recent experience
n developng countres that ncomes of rural households are ncreased
more by ncreases n off-farm ncome earned by household members
than by increases in on-farm income. Therefore, in examining the welfare
implications of the trade liberalisation for farm households, it is important
to examne all the ways n whch farm household ncomes could be affected
through the structural adjustments to the trade reforms.
Ths chapter summarses the results of the collaboratve research project
that has explored various implications of China's accession to the WTO,
particularly those relating to agricultural policy and the agricultural sector,
and to the ssue of food securty.
China's agricultural development and policies
Huang and Rozelle (Chapter 2) review China's agricultural development
and ts polcy regme before and snce ts accesson to the WTO. They
