Development of Chinese Agriculture since WTO Accession

This article discusses the main agricultural impacts of China's WTO accession and the associated challenges. We elaborate on four issues - agricultural production and trade, food security and self-sufficiency, farmers' incomes, and rural land reform. After more than seven years of WTO accession, the value of China's agricultural production and trade has increased and China has turned into a net importer of agricultural products. Globally, China now ranks as the fifth largest agricultural exporter and fourth largest agricultural importer. Although considerable resource shifts have taken place from land-intensive towards labour-intensive agricultural products in both production and trade, this transfer remains well below the potential due to trade barriers facing China's exports of labour-intensive agricultural products. Farmers' incomes increased after WTO entry, with a growing off-farm portion linked closely with world economic cycles. Rural land reform to improve economies of scale will require complementary policy aimed at a fully integrated labour and housing market, as well as a unified education and social welfare system for all of China's society. We argue that WTO accession has impacted China's agriculture in a positive fashion and has improved the efficiency of the sector, but accession has also given rise to new agricultural policy challenges.