The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday said exports of China's
agricultural products grew by 6.6 percent in the first six months
of this year, while imports dwindled by multi-millions compared
with the same period in 2001.
The surplus however does not change the fact that the country's
agriculture is facing severe challenges following China's accession
to the World Trade Organization (WTO), with agricultural trade
increasingly upset by technical barriers, experts said.
"Due partly to efforts to explore the international market and
expand vegetable and fruit trading, China exported US$8.06 billion
in agricultural products in the first half of this year, a
year-on-year rise of US$500 million," said Tang Yanli at the
ministry's information centre.
Import volume stood at US$5.07 billion, down 8.5 percent or US$470
million from the first half of 2001, resulting in a trade surplus
of US$2.99 billion, centre statistics indicated.
But half a year's figures do not tell a whole story of China's
agriculture trade in the context of the WTO, said Cheng Guoqiang, a
senior professor with the Development Research Centre of the State
Council, a key think tank of the government.
"When looking at tariff rate quotas and a number of orders placed
in the first half of this year to be delivered in the second, as
well as the immense subsidies in agriculture in some foreign
countriesChina's imports are going to rise, and so will pressure on
the domestic market and farmers," he said.
Cheng, who was involved in China's WTO accession negotiations, said
China's entry into the WTO, even in its first eight months
beginning last December, has profoundly reshaped China's
agriculture sector.
Top agricultural authorities as well as individual farmers are now
affected.
The government has modified scores of agricultural rules and
regulations to implement WTO commitments and to regulate itself in
accordance with WTO rules. Some changes have been made at the cost
of sacrificing the country's interests, he added without specifying
what they were.
Due to the tariff rate quotas, China reportedly imported 300,000
tons of edible oil in July alone, apparently dealing a heavy blow
to domestic oil producers, according to Cheng.
Meanwhile, unprecedented technical barriers imposed on Chinese
agricultural products by European Union (EU), Japan, the United
States and some other countries have also hurt the interests of
Chinese farmers.
The EU suspended imports of products of animal origin from China in
late January, asserting that potentially risky chloramphenicol
residues were found in imports.
As
a result, exports of China's aquatic products to the EU plummeted
by 73 percent or US$160 million in the first six months of 2002
compared with the same period last year, latest statistics from the
Ministry of Agriculture showed.
Exports of animal products to the EU also dropped by 8.5 percent,
statistics showed.
The sluggish world economic growth has also fuelled trade
protectionism in some countries, which have increasingly used food
safety issues as an excuse to impede Chinese agricultural products
from entering their markets, said an official with the Ministry of
Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, who refused to be
identified.
Cheng concluded that no one should underestimate the impact of WTO
membership on the country, especially its increasing pressure on
agricultural trade.
"If subsidized foreign agricultural products flow to the Chinese
market at a lower price, it will be even harder for Chinese farmers
to sell their products and even harder for them to increase their
income," Cheng said. "This is a problem of paramount concern."
(China
Daily August 5, 2002)