The Study On China's Agricultural Domestic Support Policies Under The WTO Rules

As a formed term,"domestic support"is derived from the WTO Agreement on Agriculture signed in the Uruguay Round. Domestic support policies mainly refer to the government's expenditure that will effectively support the agriculture and the farmers in the country. WTO Agreement on Agriculture divides domestic support into trade-distorting domestic support and non-trade-distorting domestic support. The former is called"green"support and the later includes"amber"support, de minimis support and special and discriminative treatment. Since the WTO Agreement on Agriculture was put into effect in 1995, the United States, the EU and Japan have actively adjusted their domestic support policies so as to enhance support of their agriculture more effectively under the WTO rules. However, China's domestic support policies have some defects such as low support level as a whole, irrational support structure, low subsidy efficiency and imperfect legislative system in agricultural support. In addition, there are some measures that are not consistent with the WTO rules in China's domestic support policies. Therefore, Chinese government should adjust the domestic support policies under the WTO rules and build a perfect support system. Meanwhile we should learn the successful adjustment experience from the developed countries.