Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Farm organisations
The other major attempt to ncrease farm productvty and agrcultural
compettveness under trade lberalsaton s to promote the development
of farmer organisations. At one time, the creation of such organisations
was a poltcally senstve ssue. Leaders were concerned about the rse
of any organisation outside the government's authority. Such restrictions,
however, caused a dilemma in reforming the nation's agricultural and
rural economes. Polcymakers are also aware that gven the small scale of
China's farms there are many increases in economic efficiency that might
be acheved by the creaton of effectve rural organsatons and that f they
are successful in raising incomes, there might be an increase in political
stablty. The government has now gven ts support to self-organsed farmer
groups that focus on agricultural technology and marketing. The Farmers'
Professonal Cooperatve Law was ssued n October 2006 to facltate the
development of farmers organsatons.
Export subsdes and agrcultural support polces
In one of ts most fundamental concessons (snce most countres are not
required to do so on the basis of their own WTO protocols), China agreed
to phase out its export subsidies in the first year of WTO accession. Such
subsidies have played a considerable role in assisting the export of maize,
cotton and other agricultural products, and in this way have indirectly
supported domestic prices. In fact, after phasing out export subsidies,
several of China's agricultural sectors (for example, maize and cotton) are
lkely to be subject to ntensve competton from mports.
Besides the elimination of export subsidies, the WTO accession
commtments place strct controls on the types and amounts of certan
investments. In particular, domestic support to agriculture is divided into
'Green Box' and 'Amber Box' support. As s the case wth other WTO
members, China faces no limitations on the amount of support classified
as Green Box that it can give, but it faces carefully circumscribed rules
regarding the amount of support that can be given to activities classified as
Amber Box. WTO commitments will, therefore, most likely force China to
shft the level and composton of ts agrcultural support n the future.
