WTO Agreement On Agriculture "Domestic Support" System

As the human "mother industry", agriculture is the foundation of humanexistence, but it is also a weak industry in China. With China’s transition fromtraditional agriculture to modern agriculture, agriculture has been gradually come intothe era of high investment, high costs and high risk. As the result, high subsidiesshould be paid in agriculture. However, the study of agricultural subsidies started latein China, research areas and contents are relatively limited. Meanwhile, existingagricultural subsidies legislation lacks the clear support of the Agricultural Basic Law,the convergence with the “domestic support” system under the WTO Agreement onAgriculture is not close. Thus, how to implement the agricultural “domestic support”system under the framework of the WTO and built up our modern system ofagricultural subsidies which are adapt to local conditions, direct clearly, benefitdirectly and operate simply in order to make agricultural subsidies truly become aneffective system of tools for benefiting the agriculture are in-depth researches andinnovations. Based on the “domestic support” system in typical developed anddeveloping countries, the author analyzes the experience of the “domestic support”system. Combined with China’s national conditions, the author also analyzes theexisting problems in the current system, and puts forward some soundcountermeasures.On the basis of the existing theoretical research and practice at home and abroad,agricultural domestic support system is further analyzed. The text is divided into fourchapters besides the introduction and the conclusion:The first chapter gives the definition of agricultural domestic support system aswell as related concepts, from which the origins of agriculture domestic support, theprovisions of the theoretical basis as well as the “Agreement on Agriculture” for“domestic support” system are provided. This part is the basis for this study, whichsummarizes the background.The second chapter analyzes the situation of agricultural “domestic support” system to in some developed and developing countries, and sums up the advantagesof other countries which can be used in our country. The United States and theEuropean Union as the representatives of the developed countries, they have soundagricultural subsidies legislations, advanced system designs and operating rules.Brazil and South Korea as the typical of developing countries which combines withthe country’s basic national conditions, they take a lot of special measures to protecttheir own agriculture. By summing up the experiences and practices of the countries,experience should be referred in the perfection of China’s agricultural domesticsupport.The third chapter firstly describes the reality of the agricultural domestic supportsystem in China after WTO, gives a detailed analysis of the defects and shortcomingsof China’s agricultural domestic support system, using amber box measures, greenbox measures, blue box measures and the WTO system requirements as the startingpoint, and puts forward the questions of China’s agricultural domestic support system,such as the support system is imperfect, the legal system is not perfect and thesupporting mechanism is not perfect.Based on comparative analysis of the three-part, the fourth chapter firstly putsforward concrete proposals and measures to improve our agricultural system ofdomestic support, according to the flaws and shortcomings of China’s agriculturaldomestic support system. Compared the multiple functionality of agriculture theorywith the sustainable development theory, it comes to the conclusion that the multiplefunctionality of agriculture theory should be the basis of building China’s agriculturaldomestic support. Secondly, China’s agricultural domestic support system isredesigned from the basic framework, relevant laws and supporting systems. Lastly itoutlines the progress of the Doha Round negotiations on China’s negotiating positionand analyzes the situation. From that, the domination of the agriculture negotiations atthis stage is the developed countries. To a large extent, it reflects the interests of thedeveloped countries. China should change the passive position at this stage, activelyparticipate in international negotiations, and strive to maximize our own interests.