Eu Common Agricultural Policy And Regional Policy And Its Experience To Draw On

After 30 years of reform and opening-up, regional and urban-rural economic gaps in China have been broadening, the phenomena of market segmentation have been sharpening and the feature of"dual economy"has still been very obvious. No matter examined from localization coefficient reflecting regional protectionism, or from the inter-provincial trade flow of goods and factors, or from integration degree of marketization of the links of production chain, the integration of internal market of China with a unique sovereignty is not just as one wishes. In addition, there are big differences of marketization degree amongst regions and amongst industries, and there are clear divisions of interests in the process of market integration. All of these will be obstacles to sustainable development of Chinese economy and to build a harmonious society. So making efforts to integrate market and promote development of market integration is important work at present.At the beginning of regional integration of the European Union (EU), there was a big regional economic gap and somehow showed a"dual economy"feature among its member states, but so far its integration has been deepening to economic and monetary union,which is significantly helpful for effective resource allocation among the member states, and hence substantially promotes their economic development. In this process, common agricultural policy and common regional policy play crucial roles in deepening the integration. Since there are some objective differences in quantity and in quality amongst various production factors, market integration involves regional problems as well as industrial ones. As the foundation of industry, agricultural problem and hence problem of regional economic gap will not be effectively solved for the fragility of agriculture and great impacts of geography and climate on employment of farmers and their income. Combining with other policies (especially financial policy), solving regional problem through regional policy can coordinate or balance related interests amongst industries, and hence give full impetus to agricultural development. Just for these reasons, they constitute most important foundation of market integration of the EU. Common agricultural policy promotes interest formation of agricultural and industrial sectors, while common regional policy make an attempt to resolve the interest imbalance problem arising from such reasons as readjustment of industrial structures for market integration. Common agricultural policy and common regional policy promote achievement of efficiency and equity based on an effective operating mechanism, which is helpful for development of market integration. Without these two common policies, European single market will not be promoted, economic and monetary union (the Euro) will not emerge, and let alone national interests, difficult to coordinate, of member states with different sovereignties.In the process of agricultural development and regional economic balancing, visual angle of development of dual economy and the theories related to agricultural and regional economic development, such as endogenous growth, convergence, market power and (im)balanced development, fully illustrate that combination and promotion of functional and institutional integrations based on concrete industrial, agricultural and regional development projects, especially common policies coordinating interests of the member states and industrial development, played an important role, which can restrain local market segmentation and etc.Common agricultural policy met the needs of European integration after WWII, which highlights value of policy selection in the process of promoting market integration of European Community. Its role evidently reveals fundamental status of agriculture and the policy itself and promotes development of market integration based on balancing interests of member states: essential goals of market integration. While common regional policy touches a basic issue of market development: market failure. With an orientation of resource and industry, the self-help assistant under common regional policy gains widespread support. A sound development of market integration itself gives a good explanation of real connotation of common regional policy: mix together of regions in a sense of the community, not a country.In the meantime, regional economic gap is increasingly expanding in China, which has aroused general concern over interest distribution and market integration. Bad development of agriculture and rural area is a very important reason for regional economic gap. The development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers"and the narrow of regional economic gap emphasize equilibrium and coordination of interest. If the issue of"agriculture, rural areas and farmers"is not carefully and skillfully handled, the gap between urban and rural areas, as well as economic gap between eastern and western regions for different urbanization level, will further broaden, and interest distribution under national reform and opening-up strategy will be more imbalanced. In the process market integration,only development of agriculture (and even rural areas and farmers) can find a way out to ensure grain supply and people's well-being of China, and to lay a solid foundation to industrial coordinated development and promotion function of agriculture to other industries. Adversely, the broadening of regional economic gap will strengthen comparative disadvantages of central and western China where a large proportion of urban population exists,and it is difficult to safeguard interests of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers", and the difficulty of social harmony will become bigger. So, Chinese market integration still embodies that fundamental agricultural and regional problems mix together. To emphasize fundamental status, to fasten development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers"and to attempt to narrow regional economic gap will be focal point of the work of promoting market integration and building harmonious society.Common policy plays an important role in regulating different interests in market development. Policy design and policy itself embody both functional integration and institutional one. Especially common/unified policy can perform an important function of coordinate interest reallocation amongst regions and industries. Endogenous growth of government expenditure under common policy can make demand and supply of factors more elastic through market integration, and hence promote welfare of two sides. Common policy, with characteristics of industry, resource and location, can play an important role in weaken localism segmenting internal market. First, it can reduce vanity projects; second, it can regulate intervene power, with an orientation of local interests, of local government; third, it will not weaken role of endogenous economic growth of local government who works with a starting point of market integration, only central government must establish and perfect payment mechanism of financial transfer to coordinate interests in the integrating market.On the way to build a harmonious society and persist in the scientific outlook on development, China must continue to promote market integration and coordinate interests. In this connection China may use the experiences of the operating mechanism of common agricultural policy and common regional policy of the EU in the process of market integration, including: 1) to formulate and perfect unified agricultural and regional policies promoting industrial development based on market; 2) to set up agricultural and regional development fund or regional policy with characteristics of industries, resources and regions ; 3) to establish concrete agricultural and regional development programmes with a goal of promoting market integration; 4) to build an organization with clearly-defined responsibilities, which guides, supervises, coordinates agricultural and regional development and policy-making based on market; 5) to establish an effective financial transfer payment mechanism; 6) to build an effective feedback and correction system.Market integration should reflect a dynamic change process of stable, innovatory, competitive and coordinated development. So agriculture, regional and financial policies should embody innovation and development of policy content in the process of market integration. Especially today to promote open and interconnected development of"plate"economy will largely strengthen development potential of Chinese market integration. Making full use of international rules and factors to resolve agricultural and regional economic problems in negotiation, cooperation and competition will leave enough room for themselves to maneuver and to gain power to perfect continuously internal market and strive for a broader development space.