Coordination And Response Of The Wto Agricultural Trade Rules With China's Agricultural Development Of The Legal System

The international agricultural products trade is basically not bound by the traditional framework of GATT, which consequently leads to severe distortion of international price of agricultural products due to protection taken by main agricultural products producers. Fortunately, the Agreement on Agriculture of WTO concluded by the Uruguay Round Talks changed this situation. The agreement binds agricultural products trade in three aspects including market access, domestic support, and export competition, and sets the long-term objective to provide for substantial progressive reductions in agricultural support and protection sustained over an agreed period of time, results in correcting and preventing restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, it also confirms the rules and objectives for international agricultural products trade and reformation should be made by WTO members according to this agreement. The agreement will also make great impact on world agricultural policies. Though the objective set by the agreement is good, unfortunately, it is not successfully carried out during its implementation. Just under this circumstance, a new round agricultural talk started. Cancun Conference in September, 2003 failed due to the contradiction and difference between developed countries and developing countries. The world agricultural products trade needs a new and fruitful round agricultural talk. WTO rules can be applicable only after they are transformed into Chinese domestic laws. In accordance with the WTO rules, we should make an overall innovation and adjustment to Chinese domestic laws. As to the innovation and adjustment to the agricultural laws, rules and policies, we should strengthen our agricultural support in accordance with the rules of Agreement on Agriculture of WTO to build up our agricultural overall production and competition ability. Especially we should amend our domestic agricultural laws and rules which are contradictory to the rules of Agreement on Agriculture of WTO and make our domestic agricultural law system more perfect. The most important thing for us is to strengthen our legal construction of macro agricultural adjustment, constitute agricultural investment law as soon as possible to ensure agricultural investment, amend the agricultural tax law to lighten the farmer's burden, and build up a more perfect agricultural guarantee legal system.