WTO And Food Security

Food is a necessity for human survival. Food security is always a global major strategic issue that concerns the country’s economic development, social stability and political independence. As a significant influencing factor for food supply and access, international trade is closely linked with food security. With the advancement of agriculture multilateral trade system, whether trade liberalization is conducive to food security or undermines the food security becomes the focus of international attention.Especially during the assessment of the implementation of AoA, the impact of trade liberalization on food security has encouraged common concern of economists, policy makers and negotiators. Advocates of free trade argue that trade liberalization can can guarantee adequate and stable food supply, improve the efficiency of economic growth and the level of benefits, increase revenue, and thus reduce the degree of food insecurity.Critics of freer trade argue that trade liberalization has widened income gap, and reduced the level of welfare of the poor, thereby undermining the food security situation. In order to clarify the relationship between trade liberalization and food security, analysis and appraisal of the actual and potential impact of the process of agricultural trade liberalization on food security are made from the legal and policy perspective.Meanwhile, the WTO impact on China’s agriculture and food security is examined and dealed with. These issues are explored through four parts (from Chapter Ⅲ to Chapter Ⅵ) in this paper.The first part discusses the impact of agricultural trade protection policies on food security during the GATT era. Based on analysis of GATT agricultural trade rules and the national agricultural trade policies, the article points out that policies on agricultural trade protection are prevalent mainly in developed countries, whereas those protection in developing countries are negative, since agriculture trade arrangement is actually excluded from the GATT system and subjected to the domestic agricultural policy. Although aimed at domestic political, domestic political, economic or social achievements, the "spillover effect" of policy implementation is distorting the world agricultural trade order, and seriously affecting food security in developing countries.Most developing countries are facing food shortages caused by unbalanced food supply, food supply fluctuations caused by the instability of the agricultural products market, and the sharp drop on food access due to the decline of export revenues. Agricultural trade protection policy which benefits net-food-importing developing countries in the short-term, in the long run leads to food security hardship. The state’s intervention and high protection on agricultural trade therefore, can not ensure food security. It may be more conducive to food security in developing countries by eliminating agricultural trade distortions in major developed countries, and formulating the appropriate domestic agricultural policy.The second part is to provide a legal and policy analysis on the impact of WTO agricultural trade liberalization on food security. Based on the assessment of the WTO agricultural trade rules and its implementation effects, the article examines "Agreement on Agriculture" and "Marrakesh Decision" on food security concerns, and explores the actual impact of the WTO trade liberalization on food security. It points out the specific arrangement on food security concerns in WTO agricultural trade rules doesn’t exert actual effectiveness, though the significance of food security problem is recoganized in the agricultural trade reform, and a certain degree of policy flexibility is provided. Moreover, it indicates the development of trade liberalization provides predictable institutional environment for food security, increases the flow of world food trade and ensures adequate food supply. However, the imbalance in the liberalization process leads to limited policy space for developing countries to promote food security, and the continued existence of trade-distorting support still affects the food supply and access in developing countries. Therefore, the effects of WTO agricultural trade liberalization on the food security have both the pros and cons, but for the developing countries, benefits little.The third part indicates the progress of the Doha negotiations on agriculture and its impact on food security and reform. Based on the analysis of the progress of the Doha negotiations on agriculture, it discusses the positive significance and the potential negative impact on food security deriving from the initial results of the negotiations—a "framework agreement" and the consensus achieved in the specific pattern stages, and further points out that compared to Uruguay Round, the Doha negotiations on agriculture can promote agricultural trade liberalization more comprehensively and indeptly, and have partly realized the food security concerns and agricultural development needs for developing members. It does not, however, fully achieve the development mission, including food security promotion. Thus, in order to harmonize trade and food security concerns in the WTO system, it is necessary to further promote the reform of agricultural trade, including improvement of agricultural trade rules related to food security, promotion of Marrakech Decision effective implementation, enhancement of the functions of the Committee on Agriculture in the trade and food security aspects, and strength of collaboration with other international organizations on trade and food security issues.The fourth part illustrates the influence of WTO on China’s agriculture and food security and countermeasures. Combining with the status quo of China’s agriculture development and food security in this part, the analysis of the actual and potential impact of the accession to the WTO and the Doha agricultural negotiations on agriculture and food security, it is to point out that the accession to the WTO not only brings both opportunities and challenges to the development of agriculture in China, but also exert certain impact on China’s food security goal. On the one hand, China can allocate food production resources in the larger range, or access to food directly from the international market which has positive implications for food supply; on the other hand, with the comprehensive implementation of WTO accession commitment, China’s domestic food supply will be severely affected, and policy support space for food production will also be limited, moreover, the government macro-control for food trade will be more difficult, all of which are not conducive to China’s food security protection. With the establishment of the Doha development agenda, food security concerns are taken into account to some extent. But there are still potential adverse factors affecting food security, including tariff reduction and domestic support policies. In this regard, China should further promote trade reform at the international level, accompanied with the domestic policy adjustments and system improvement, adhere to food security strategy that achieve food self-sufficiency through domestic production and appropriately makes use of the international food market.Based on the above research, the paper concludes that unfettered agricultural trade protectionism is not conducive to the solution of food security problem. While trade liberalization has brought a positive impact on food security, it also produced a threat and negative effect. Especially for developing countries, the imbalance of trade liberalization obligations seriously affects their food security goals. Therefore, as far as food security is concerned, the real problem is not the reforms on agricultural trade liberalization, the real problem, however, is under what circumstances these reforms are appropriate, as well as how to better promote these reforms to achieve development objectives, including food security. In the long term, if unfair institutional arrangements under WTO system are fundamentally reformed, a relatively liberal domestic policy space is provided for developing countries, then the fair and free trade will be a considerable way to solve food security issues. After accession to WTO, China’s agricultural development and food security are facing both opportunities and challenges.Therefore, China should adhere to food security strategy that achieves food self-sufficiency through domestic production and appropriately makes use of the international food market.