By Ye Xingqing, Cheng Yu & Han Yang, Research Team on “Strategic Adjustment of Agriculture Against the Background of High-Level Opening Up,” Research Department of Rural Economy, DRC

Research Report, No.196, 2019 (Total 5696)

2019-11-5

Abstract: Over the past two decades since the Agreement on Agriculture of World Trade Organization (WTO) took effect, the global agricultural product trade landscape has seen great changes. Meanwhile, the agricultural development interests of different member countries have also differentiated significantly and reforms of rules on domestic support for agriculture are increasingly advocated. Most member countries believe that capping overall trade-distorting domestic support (OTDS), including Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) and de minimis is a key step in reforms of domestic support. Members without AMS rights support stratified AMS reduction and restrict AMS for specific products used by developed member countries. Some member countries ask to include blue box measures in OTDS capping and even propose to improve restrictions on the discipline of green box measures. It should be noted that any claim on reforms of domestic support for agriculture will involve the interests of China’s agricultural development. To improve China’s domestic support for agriculture, it needs to fully consider the trend of reforms on domestic support for agriculture under the WTO framework. And China should focus on improving support reduction, strengthening disciplines, and enhancing forward-looking and top-level design of its new agricultural subsidy policies and systems.

Key words: World Trade Organization, agricultural agreement, domestic support, China