Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
On Amber Box policies, the accession protocol allows a
de minimis
level of support equal to 8.5 per cent of agricultural gross value product.
After intense negotiations, the level was set somewhat below that enjoyed
by other developng countres (10 per cent) but above that allowed to
industrialised countries (5 per cent). Moreover, the list of items used in
the computaton of Chna's Amber Box support s wder than that appled
to other countries (for example, certain agricultural output and input
subsdes for poor farmers that are consdered as Green Box n developng
countres are ncluded n the computaton of Amber Box n Chna). On
paper, therefore, China's hands appear to be quite firmly tied regarding
the scope of the support t s able to provde. When one consders the
amount of fiscal funds that China has historically devoted to these areas,
however, it could be that the
de minimis
lmt wll not be bndng. The
bggest mpact could be some tme n the future after Chna has grown
further and ts budget constrant has been relaxed somewhat. Chna's
commitment should, however, be thought of as fairly limiting as it closes
off optons for supportng ts rural actvtes n ways that ts neghbours n
East Asia have done (Martin 2002).
New agrcultural and rural development polces
Since the early 2000s, China's leaders have been considering solutions to the
'Three Nongs' issues, which are at the top of the economic development
agenda: agriculture, rural areas and farmers. To facilitate economic
development in these areas, the government has issued four Number One
Documents snce 2004. Each of these polcy documents was decreed on
the first day of the year (the order in which policy documents are issued
normally reflects the importance of the policy).
Each of these documents had a specific focus on agricultural and rural
development. The 2004 document was amed prmarly at rasng farmers'
ncomes through reducng and elmnatng agrcultural taxes and fees
paid by farmers, increasing income transfer to farmers—particularly those
in the western regions—promoting agricultural structural changes and
facltatng farmers' off-farm employment. The 2005 document called for
substantal ncreases n agrcultural producton capacty through massve
government investment in technology, land, water and agricultural and
