Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The details of China's TRQs in agricultural products are shown in Table
13.1. The within-quota tariffs are quite low, while the out-of-quota tariffs
are almost prohibitive. For example, the in-quota tariff for sugar is 20
per cent, while it is 9 per cent for edible oils and only 1 per cent for rice,
wheat, maize and wool. The quantities imported at these low tariff levels
are limited; however, the in-quota volumes were to grow over a four-year
period (2002-05) at annual rates ranging from 4 per cent to 19 per cent. At
the same time, tariffs on out-of-quota imports and import shares for SOEs
would be reduced substantally between 2002 and 2005.
AFTA's tariff reduction schedule
The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) was established in January 1992 with the
objectve of elmnatng tarff barrers among ASEAN member countres. The
Agreement on the Common Effectve Preferental Tarff (CEPT) Scheme for
the AFTA requires that tariff rates levied on a wide range of products traded
within the region will be reduced to no more than 5 per cent. Quantitative
restrctons and other non-tarff barrers are to be elmnated. The free
trade agreement covers all manufactured and agrcultural products;
however, 734 tariff lines on the General Exception List—representing 1.09
per cent of all tariff lines in ASEAN—are permanently excluded from the
agreement for reasons of natonal securty (ASEAN Secretarat 2002).
ASEAN member countres have made good progress n lowerng ntra-
regional tariffs. More than 99 per cent of the products in the CEPT Inclusion
List of ASEAN+6 have been brought down to the 0-5 per cent tariff range
(Figure 13.1). ASEAN's new members have also reduced their import tariffs,
with almost 80 per cent of their products having been moved into their
respective CEPT inclusion lists. Of these items, about 66 per cent already
have tariffs within the 0-5 per cent band. Vietnam had until 2006 to bring
down tarffs of products on ts ncluson lst to no more than 5 per cent;
Laos and Myanmar have until 2008, and Cambodia until 2010.
Accordng to the amendng protocol 7 sgned by ASEAN member states n
2003, import duties on products on the inclusion lists of Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will be eliminated no
later than 1 January 2010. Import dutes on products on the ncluson lsts
for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will be eliminated no later
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