On China's Agriculture Domestic Support Policies Under The WTO Framework

Agriculture is the foundation of a country's development. As its inherentvulnerability, nearly all the governments in the world implement policies to protect orsupport the agriculture sector. Domestic support is one of the measures that can havea direct effect on production and trade. In the WTO's terms, the domestic supportpolicies can be divided as three boxes----amber box, green box, and blue box.China does have support polices as to the agriculture sector. However, as thelimitation of the country's economic and social development, the country's supportpolicies didn't show very positive effect in the past years. Now China as a newMember of the World Trade Organization should establish an integrative agriculturaldomestic support system in order to boost the development of its vulnerableagriculture industry and increase the income of its great numbers of farmers. Referredto the developed and developing countries' practices, China now should strengthenthe financial input to the agriculture sector related to the green box and adjust thedirection of the amber support polices. Specifically the Government should providedirect subsidies to farmers, which will not stimulate production but has a positiveeffect to enhance their income. Additionally the Government should improve thecurrent price support system and help the farmers to establish their own organizationsin order to make their voices heard in the World Trade Organization's Agriculturenegotiation.