Interpretation of the International Agricultural Trade System and Policy Application

Author: Lan Haitao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-08-01
Features: After joining the WTO, China has been greatly impacted by the policies adopted by the Chinese government to adapt to WTO rules. This book examines the formation mechanisms, evolutionary patterns, and operational effects of the WTO's agricultural agreements from the perspective of the international agricultural trade system. It accurately identifies the points of conflict between China's agricultural policies and WTO agricultural rules and proposes a targeted set of agricultural policy adjustment plans. The author's research findings indicate that the formulation and implementation of the international agricultural trade system are the result of a mutual game based on national interests among countries. Small countries hope to protect their interests through rules, while large countries attempt to control others using the rules. When rules are inconsistent with a country's interests, both small and large countries are willing to break the rules to achieve their goals. May 2002 saw the passage of the new U.S. agricultural law, which was full of trade protectionism, serving as a vivid example. The author believes that the main conflicts between China's agricultural policies and WTO agricultural rules do not seem to be as numerous as people imagine. Most studies focus on direct and explicit rule conflicts, while paying insufficient attention to implicit institutional conflicts. Among a series of rule conflicts, the weak conflicts are dominant, while the strong conflicts are secondary. In response to these conflict points, the book proposes a comprehensive set of adjustment plans for China's agricultural policies from both strategic and tactical perspectives. This includes the guiding ideology and basic principles for adjusting China's agricultural policies, strategic adjustment suggestions to gradually resolve institutional conflicts, tactical adjustment proposals to eliminate specific points of conflict in agricultural policies, and countermeasures for participating in the "Development Round" multilateral agricultural trade negotiations.