Growth and Evolution in China's Agricultural Support Policies

Fred Gale

No 155385, Economic Research Report from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: China is perhaps the most prominent example of a developing country that has transitioned from taxing to supporting agriculture. In recent years, Chinese price supports and subsidies have risen at an accelerating pace after they were linked to rising production costs. Per-acre subsidy payments to grain producers now equal 7 to 15 percent of those producers’ gross income, but grain payments appear to have little influence on production decisions. Chinese authorities began raising price supports annually to bolster incentives and Chinese prices for major farm commodities are rising above world prices, helping to attract a surge of agricultural imports. U.S. agricultural exports to China tripled in value during the period when China’s agricultural support was accelerating. Overall, China’s expansion of support is loosely constrained by World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, but the country’s price-support programs could exceed WTO limits in coming years. Chinese officials promise to continue increasing domestic policy support for agriculture, but the mix of policies may evolve as the Chinese agricultural sector becomes more commercialized and faces competitive pressures.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; International Development; International Relations/Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60
Date: 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/155385/files/err153.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uersrr:155385

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.155385

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economic Research Report from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().