Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
argue and demonstrate that Chna's WTO accesson commtments are a
contnuaton of polcy changes that have been takng place snce economc
reforms began in 1979. Moreover, they see the accession commitments as
verfyng a fundamental shft by the government from drect partcpaton
n the economy to takng on a more ndrect regulatory and fosterng role.
They see a trend n polces pushng agrcultural actvtes n a drecton that
s more consstent wth the country's resource endowments. The accesson
agreements wll allow more land-ntensve products nto the domestc market
from overseas and stmulate the export of labour-ntensve crops.
Huang and Rozelle see the post-WTO accession policy changes taking
two basc forms: those changes necessary to honour the oblgatons of
the accession commitments, and those policies necessary to minimise
any adverse mpacts from the accesson commtments. Some of the latter
policies include further land reform to allow farm amalgamation, higher
productivity and incomes, promotion of farmer organisations, abolition
of agricultural taxes and investment in new technology. Overall, Huang
and Rozelle see a strong government commtment to modernsng the
agrcultural sector n Chna.
Food self-sufficiency and food security
Maintenance of grain self-sufficiency has long been a major plank of China's
agricultural policy. As recently as 1996, the Vice-Minister of Agriculture,
Wan Baorui (1996), announced that the grain self-sufficiency rate was to
be mantaned at above 95 per cent. Along wth the wdenng of per capta
income disparities between rural and urban areas, the rhetoric of food
self-sufficiency is the most prominent weapon of China's protectionists.
There has been concern that China will go the way of Japan, Korea and
Tawan and protect ts agrcultural sector as the sector shrnks n relatve
mportance and natonal per capta ncomes ncrease. Chna's accesson to
the WTO could have come just n tme to make ths possblty less lkely.
While WTO accession lessens the risk that the protectionists will succeed,
the agrculture mnstry has been assgned a promnent role n trade polcy
formation and negotiation, with the power to press for further agricultural
protection on self-sufficiency as well as distributional grounds (Anderson
et al. 2002; Tong 2003).
