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Trade Liberalization And Food Security Policy In China

Posted on:2004-07-04Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:J W LiuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116360095960751Subject:Agricultural Economics and Management
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Food security has been a core issue and one of the most important considerations of China's national economic and social policies. Policy-makers and researchers from both China and international community have paid very close attention to the dynamic changes of China's food security condition in the long run for a large span of time. Recent major debates have, first of all, focused on the ability of China to feed its 1.6 billion people in the future, and then switched to the major concern of food safety in the past several years. Major conclusions have achieved from various studies. However, there are notrsignificant studies on the issue of linking trade liberalization with food security policy changes in China after its WTO accession. In fact, China's food security has become a more complex and dynamic issue than ever before after China joined in WTO in December 11, 2001. On the one hand, although Uruguay Round Negotiation has accelerated the pace of agricultural trade liberalization, its trend and the degree of trade liberalization has not been very clear so far, which will not only put important influences on international grain production and supply capability and market certainty, but also bring about serious challenges to China while achieving domestic long-term goal of food security and trying to set an adequate line for grain importation according to the trend changes of domestic grain production and consumption. On the other hand, China has opened up its domestic market long before implementing its WTO commitments, and will have to open up to foreign agricultural products furthermore. In order to improve agricultural production efficiency and the disposition of natural resources, and to give play to agricultural comparative advantages, while insuring domestic grain production and avoid foreign high quality and low cost food competition, China will continue to take crucial steps to adjust its domestic support measurements and trade policies complying with the WTO rules, and to make efforts to achieve favorable provisions of trade rules in the new round of WTO agricultural negotiations.As for China's food security policy changes, it is worthwhile to take the point views of developing countries into consideration. It is no doubt that the fundamental issues, such as steadily improving domestic grain production capability and market system including market facilities and distribution systems, will always be the most important aspects of insuring food security for the nation and individuals. In the new round WTO negotiations, China will benefit from supporting the proposals of developing countries regarding food security and related issues. Nevertheless, as a populous and large country, the policy choices and concrete measurements of China to achieve food security may beapparently different from those developing countries. The realistic and enforceable policy choices, when putting food security issue into a broad picture of China's agricultural and rural economic development, will be to replace the traditional ideology of food security (i.e. very high grain self-sufficiency) with a new pattern of food security, which is to increase grain import adequately while mainly relying on domestic production, to enhance export competitiveness of the agricultural products with comparative advantages in order to increase farmers' income and to facilitate rural economic development, and to improve China's food security through enhancing vulnerable regions' and low-income people's food security condition via rural labor migration and urbanization.To insure China's food security in the future, the key policy changes may focus ontthe aspects as follows:1. To facilitate domestic grain production and improve grain quality through agricultural restructuring in terms of regional comparative advantages under the background of domestic markets integration and trade liberalization;2. To keep basic arable land from non-farm uses when decreasing grain sown areas, and to increase high value...
Keywords/Search Tags:trade liberalization, WTO, food security, policy
PDF Full Text Request
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