入世对我国农产品进出口贸易的影响及策略分析论文.doc

The Impact of Chinas Entry to WTO on the Trade of Chinese Agricultural Products and the CountermeasuresAbstract China is a developing country with the largest population in the world, and agriculture is the fundamental industry in our country. About 66% Chinese people live in the countryside, and 48% labor force rely on the land for a living. Therefore, the import and export of agricultural products is closely related to farmers income, employment and rural economic development. Since reform and opening up, the trade of agricultural products has risen rapidly, China has become the fifth exporter and fourth importer of agricultural products in the world. After its entry to the WTO, Chinas agriculture has met a lot of challenges and opportunities as well. Chinas entry to WTO has brought about lots of impacts on the international trade of Chinas agriculture products. Studying on the impacts of Chinas entry to WTO and working out some improving measures would be of great significance to promote the healthy and rapid development for the foreign trade of Chinas agricultural products.Key words agricultural products, import and export, impacts, countermeasures入世对我国农产品进出口贸易的影响及发展对策【摘要】中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家，农业是我国的基础产业。66%的人口生活在农村，48%的劳动力依靠土地为生计，农产品进出口贸易事关农民的增收、就业和农村经济的发展。我国自改革开放以来，农产品国际贸易取得了快速的发展，特别是我国在2001年加入WTO以后农产品国际贸易规模不断扩大，已经成为世界第五大农产品出口国和第四大农产品进口国。入世后中国面临更多的挑战和机遇。入世对中国农业有多方面的影响。本文分析入世后我国农产品贸易的现状，研究入世对我国农产品进出口贸易产生的影响，进而提出有针对性的对策，以利于我国农产品对外贸易的健康快速的发展。【关键词】农产品 进出口 影响 对策ContentsIntroduction11. The Current Situation of International Trade of Agricultural Products22. The Impacts of Chinas Entry to WTO32.1 Positive Impacts32.2 Negative Impacts63. Countermeasures83.1 Adjusting the Structure of Agricultural Products83.2 Industrializing the Operation of Agriculture93.3 Establishing the System of Environmental Barriers93.4 Enhancing Anti-dumping Consciousness103.5 Formulating Policies to Further Support the Export of Agricultural Products10Conclusion11Works Cited13Acknowledgements14IntroductionThe World Trade Organization (WTO) is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. The organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries; it provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements, and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants adherence to WTO agreements which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focused on derived from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round.On December 11 2001, China joined WTO and became the 143rd formal member. Joining WTO was a very important event for the developing country. China has become an important member of the world economic community and played an important role in the global economy. WTO membership open up Chinas market for more international trade and investment, and open up the world economy for Chinas exports. Nowadays China has become the fifth exporter and fourth importer of agricultural products in the world. The trade volume was $ 6.1 billion in 1978, and $99.16 billion in 2008, with an annual average growth rate of 912%.The agricultural trading nation has been formed. At the same time, the shock of agricultural products was gradually emerging. Chinas foreign trade of agricultural products kept 20 years surplus. Then it occurred to the trade deficit for the first time, which accounted for 9% of the total in the national agricultural trade. In 2008, the exports of agricultural products reached $40.5 billion, an increase of 17.9% from the previous year dropped to 9.4%, and the trade deficit was $18.16 billion (Wang Li 2009). Would this bring serious problem to the three rural issues? How to make full use of the WTO agreement to protect the development of foreign trade and the vital interests of the farmers in the more open market conditions? It was an urgent problem that we needed to think about. In 2004, Ma Xiaohe analyzed the key point of supply and demand balance of domestic agricultural products after Chinas entry into WTO. In 2000, Long Yongtu illustrated the main content of the open up produce market and the impact on the agricultural products. The international economic scholar, Jackson from methodological point of view analyzed many limitations existing in early GATT. Ralph Gomory and William Baumol explained the causes of international trade friction in terms of the development of productivity change. However, these articles were not in-depth analyzed the impact on the trade of Chinas agricultural products. This paper aims to analyze the impacts of Chinas entry to WTO on the trade of agricultural products from both the pros and cons to promote the healthy and rapid development of our countrys import and export of agricultural products. 1. The Current Situation of International Trade of Agricultural ProductsSince reform and opening up, the import and export of agricultural products has risen rapidly, and the import has grown faster than export. The trade volume of agricultural products reached $ 30.44 billion in 2002, $40.13 billion in 2003, $77.59 billion in 2007. While the total value in 2007 increased six times than 1980s. From 1990 to 2003, China maintained surplus in agricultural trade. However, the import and export of agricultural products appeared deficit in 2004, which amounted to $ 4.88 billion. During the period of 2005 to 2007, the trade volume of agricultural products showed an upward trend, which reached the highest point. The import of agricultural products grew faster than exports. Therefore, the trade of agricultural products turned surplus into deficit. From 2005 to 2007, the agricultural products of international trade deficit were $1.47 billion, $960 million, $43 million (Luo Jiyan 2010).Wheat and rice are net exports. In recent years, as the grain supply and demand is tight, some major grain exporters take certain measures to restrict grain export, which further exacerbates the tensions in grain supply and demand. In this situation, the import and export of Chinas major food remains net export, especially rice, wheat and corn, which indicates that the supply of food is based on domestic production, thus defusing the trade pressure caused by the tensions in grain supply and demand.The export of agricultural products with advantages continues to grow. Fruits, vegetables and aquatic products are traditional agricultural products, which have comparative advantage for export. Although the animal product is still net export, it is an important component in the international trade. The export volume reaches $4.05 billion, which accounts for 11% of total.China imports soybeans and edible vegetable oil in huge quantities for crushing at home to meet its continuously increasing demand for vegetable oil .The import volume of Soybeans exceeds 30 million tons and 8.98 million tons of edible vegetable oil in recent years. The data in the Second International Conference of fuel oil indicated that from 2006 to 2007, the import volume and consumption of soybean oil reached 2.4 million tons and 8.63 million tons respectively, and ranked first in the world. The imports of soybean oil, palm oil and rapeseed oil were all ranked in the front row. And they accounted for 18% of global trade, including soybean oil accounted for 24% of the total (Luo Jiyan 2010).It was an important feature that the price of agricultural products was increasing rapidly in the world market. In 2007, wheat price rose 112%, soybean 75.1% and corn 47.3%. Chinas commerce ministry has reported that the statistics of import and export of agricultural products showed that from January to November, the import of agricultural products price index was 124.6 and the export was 105.9, which indicated that the international grain price was a stimulus to the domestic market (Luo Jiyan 2010).2. The Impacts of Chinas Entry to WTOJoining to the WTO was the only way to integrate with the world economy and participate in global competition. Also it was an important manifestation of the reform and opening up. Undoubtedly, Chinas entry to the WTO must comply with the international norms, including the Agreement on Agriculture and Sino-US Agricultural Cooperation Agreement, this has brought profound impact on Chinas agricultural products. For China, entry to the WTO has brought about new opportunities and challenges.2.1 Positive ImpactsChina had to fulfill the obligations it committed to during the 13-year negotiation for WTO membership. Joining to the WTO has brought some advantages for China. It induced the eventual reduction and elimination of many policies distorting trade, production, and consumption of agricultural commodities that were in consistent with WTO principles.2.1.1 Powerful Environment for the Trade of Agricultural ProductsFirstly, after joining the WTO, China has benefited from the preferential treatment in free trade, especially in tariff reduction, enjoyed by all signatory countries to the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade, the predecessor of WTO. China has unconditionally obtained the most-favored-nation status with all WTO members. These have given China a better opportunity to tap international agricultural resources and markets. Chinas entry into WTO has helped China accelerate its agriculture reform and establish an agriculture macro-control system compatible with the market economy, thus enhancing the production of agricultural products and sharpening the competitive edge of Chinas farm products in the international market. Secondly, as a member state, China had a better chance to protect its own trade interests. It was eligible to resort to relevant WTO clauses and its mechanism to resolve disputes to protect its domestic agricultural production and market against the dumping of foreign farm produce. Thirdly, China was also qualified to participate in multilateral trade negotiations to fight protectionism in trade of farm products. The WTO membership dramatically reduced the amount of unfair treatment imposed on Chinas agricultural sector by other countries, including non-tariff restrictions against Chinas exported farm products, thus facilitating their entry to the world market and expanding their market shares.2.1.2 Comparative Advantage of Agricultural ProductsAfter entering the WTO, China has opened up its market for the goods and services from foreign countries. The rapid economic growth and gradual transition toward market economy have brought significant changes in production and consumption patterns and trade behavior in agriculture. Entry to WTO, the domestic market has further integrated with international market. Various tariff and non-tariff have been reduced or eliminated. These meant that Chinese economy has been well developed in terms of the principle of comparative advantages. Meanwhile, the agricultural products were set at lower price to meet the requirements of domestic consumers. China is a large agricultural country, primarily producing grain, peanut, meat, rapeseed, fruit, cotton and so on, which ranks first in worldwide. China has abundant labor force. These resource endowments gave China a certain comparative advantage in labor-intensive goods in the world markets. Labor-intensive crops, such as vegetables, tobacco, cotton, and fruits were better suited for Chinese agriculture than grains. As Chinas entry into WTO has changed the trade environment, the advantage agricultural products were exported greatly. From January to May 2002, Chinas aquatic products, vegetables, fruits and other labor-intensive goods were exported greatly. The exports rate were up to 6.9%, 11%, and 18.6% respectively. On the other hand, due to the shortage of agricultural resources, insufficient investment and backward production mode directly restricted the development of agriculture and product supply capabilities, thus the actual cost of food rises every year. Since the reform and opening up, Chinas agricultural products, especially the food price has been to increase to reach the international market level. After opening up the world market, China could give up part of the production according to the principle of comparative advantage. Also China could use the international markets and resources and the relatively cheap imported grain to make up the gap between Chinas growing food demand and supply.2.1.3 Internationalization of AgricultureThe internationalization of agriculture referred to participate in the international division of agricultural production, make the agricultural resources allocated at the international level, arrange production in terms of the international and domestic market demand, adjust the structure of agricultural products, strengthen the cooperation among nations, introduce good crops , livestock and poultry breed from abroad, improve the quality and quantity of the agricultural products, and enhance competitiveness of Chinas agricultural products in the international market. China has actively introduced foreign investment to speed up the agriculture change from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, implemented a virtuous cycle of agricultural production and the liberalization of agricultural products to achieve domestic food security in the global market.2.1.4 International Market ShareAfter the Uruguay Round, as many countries reduced agricultural protection level and increased market access, China seized the opportunity to expand exports of agricultural products. According to WTO Secretariat estimated that in the Uruguay Round negotiations, the developed countries, tariff cut of 37% or more. Tax rate reductions in most agricultural products were fresh flowers, plants, vegetables, oilseeds, grains, representing a reduction of 40% or more, the tax rate cuts for agricultural products were the smallest dairy products, sugar, animals and other products, a reduction of 32% or less. Tariff concessions to developing countries in the Uruguay Round established the basic 24% target. At the same time, all members of the party in the amount of market access (tariff quota volume) there was also increased significantly. Tariff quotas of wheat increased by 807,000 tons, an increase of 1.076 million tons of rice, maize increased 1.065 million tons, dairy products increased by 729 thousand tons. This expanded the competitive ability of Chinas exports of agricultural products.2.1.5 Multiple Interactions of Foreign TradeWTO Agreement on Agriculture has ended the import monopoly status by ensuring the trade share of private trading entity, which could greatly stimulate the initiative and operating vitality of state-owned trading entities, promote the reform, development of state-owned enterprises, and improve the competitiveness of the state-owned agricultural trade entity. WTO provided the powerful supervision mechanism for the reform and operation of Chinas agricultural trade system and reduced the rent-seeking” behavior in the existing agricultural trade system, and maintained the transparency and predictability of agricultural trading system, provided stable legal environment for the development of agricultural trade.2.2 Negative ImpactsLike a double-edged sword, entry to the WTO also brought some negative impacts on Chinas agriculture. Therefore, we must recognize the negative influence caused by WTO and make corresponding countermeasures. The negative influences are showed in the following aspects. 2.2.1 The Influx of Foreign Agricultural ProductsThe influx of foreign agricultural products put heavy pressure on farmers income. China had committed that the average tariff rates on agricultural products would be reduced from 21.2% to17% in 2004. Also China had committed to eliminate all nontariff measures on wheat, rice, corn, cotton, soybean oil, sugar, wool and other important agricultural products, to implement a tariff rate quota system. And the implementation on tariff rate quota has caused an increase in the imports of agricultural products, thus leading to the low self-sufficiency of agricultural products. Farmers income could be pounded certainly.2.2.2 Structure of Agricultural Production The production of staple agricultural products such as wheat, corn, soybean, cotton, rape and other crop lost comparative advantage by the end of 1990s. Firstly, the production cost of domestic resources for producing these products was higher than that in the international market. And the production cost of per kilogram wheat was 1.2 times than United Statess, 1.4 times than Argentinas, over 2 times than Canadas. Corn was 1.2 times than United States and Argentinas. Soybean was1.2-1.3 times than United States and Argentinas. Rapeseed was over 2 times than Canadas. Secondly, China has cancelled the export subsidies for agricultural products. However, according to WTO Agreement on Agriculture, the European Union and United States have gradually eliminated the export subsidies which caused the unequal competition of agricultural exports to some extent. As the governments protective policies on domestic farm products began to be phased out, foreign farm products at lower prices were set to pose great challenges to their Chinese counterparts. So the structure of Chinese agricultural production faced great shock (Yu Xiao 2002). 2.2.3 Obstacle of Environmental BarriersGreen barrier was a kind of protection model in international trade，which was generally adopted in developed countries and strengthened constantly in the i