context: 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of China’s accession to the WTO (World Trade Organisation). Speaking at a high-level meeting on 11 October, the PRC's top ag official took stock of the nation’s agricultural opening-up. The speech signals a continued commitment to global ag trade—but increasingly on China’s own terms.
Since joining the WTO in 2001, China has fully complied with its commitments and become a poster child of global ag trade, lauded Ma Youxiang 马有祥 MARA (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs) vice minister. Measures such as cutting import tariffs, reducing non-tariff trade barriers and adjusting agricultural subsidy policies have turned China into 'the most open agricultural market in the world', according to a readout of Ma’s speech published in China Trade News.
Opening up its ag sector has been 'a win-win for China and the world', Ma noted, stressing achievements such as
- continuous increases in grain output over the past 20 years
- a sixfold increase in per-capita income of famers
- growth in ag investment and trade
- more ‘discursive power’ for China in the international arena
With risks and uncertainties in the global ag market growing, the policy focus should now be on
- pushing forward WTO reform and establishing a 'fairer ag trade order'
- promoting regional cooperation schemes such as Belt and Road, RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) with a focus on South-South cooperation
- strengthening agricultural opening and cooperation zones to enhance China’s global integration and agricultural ‘going out’