1. The commitments to the WTO
The agriculture's relevant commitments to the WTO are about following aspects:
(1) To abolish the non-tariff measures and convert them into tariffs
After china's accession to the WTO, the non-tariff measures should be abolished and only tariff measures are allowed to be used in the administration of the agricultural imports.
According to the Protocol of Agriculture, the conversion into tariffs should take the period of 1986-1988 as the calculation base. China has set down the principle of equivalent conversion during the negotiations with the other WTO members.
(2) Tariff concession and restriction
The agriculture agreement between China and USA became the major foundation of China's commitments of tariff concession in agriculture to the WTO. According to the SINO-US agreement of tariff concession, china will reduce its agricultural tariffs step-by-step and bound all the agricultural products' tariffs during the five years' transitional period.
-By the year of 2004, the average tariff level of china's agricultural products will be reduced from the present 21.2% to 17%, falling 20%. As for the specific products, the tariff of wine will be reduced from 65% to 20%, the tariff of cheese will be reduced from 65% to 12%, the tariffs of beef and fruits will be reduced from 30%-45% to 10%-12%. The bound rate for soybean will at the level of 3% and barley's bound rate will be at the level of 9%. Tariff quotas will be used in the administration of the imports of wheat, corn, rice, cotton and wool etc, with low tariffs applying to the imports under quotas and high tariffs applying to the imports beyond quotas.
(3) Tariff quotas will be implemented against the important products and the quotas volume will increase
China has committed to abolish the non-tariff measures as soon as it enters into the WTO and the administration of tariff quotas will come into force, without any opportunity loss of market access for the WTO members. During the course of negotiation, china has gotten the chance of enforcing administration of tariff quotas on the important products such as wheat, rice, corn, cotton, bean oil and sugar etc.
-The deadline to enforce the administration of tariff quotas on wheat, rice, corn, cotton and sugar is the year of 2004;
-The deadline to enforce the administration of tariff quotas on bean oil, palm oil and rap oil is the year of 2005;
-The importing quotas committed by China for wheat, corn, rice, sugar and cotton in 2002 are 8.468 million tons, 5.85 million tons, 3.99 million tons, 1.764 million tons and 0.8185 million tons.
-By the year of 2004, the above quotas will increase to 9.636 million tons, 7.2 million tons, 5.32 million tons, 1.945 million tons and 0.894 million tons.
-The committed importing quotas for bean oil, palm oil and rap oil in 2002 are 2.518 million tons, 2.4 million tons and 0.8789 million tons, which will increase to 3.5871 million tons, 3.168 million tons and 1.243 million tons in 2005.
-The in-quota tariffs for wheat and corn are differed from 1% to 10% and the inquota tariffs are 65% to 71%. The in-quota tariffs for rice are differed from 1% to 9% and their inquota tariffs are differed from 65% to 71%.
-The in-quota tariffs for sugar will be reduced from 20% to 15% and its inquota tariff will be reduced from 60.4% to 50%.
-The in-quota tariffs for cotton is 1% and its inquota tariff will be reduced from 54.4% to 40%.
-The in-quota tariffs for bean oil, palm oil and rap oil are 9% without exception and their inquota tariffs will be reduced from 52.4% to 19.9%.
During the negotiation course, China and USA have reached a compromise about the allocation of importing quotas as follows:
-By 2004, the state trading proportion of wheat will be 90% and that of corn will be reduced from 68% to 60%. The state trading proportion of rice will be 50%, while the counterparts of sugar and cotton will be 70% and 33% separately.
-By 2005, the state trading proportion of bean oil, palm oil and rap oil will be reduced from 34% to 10%, and ultimately to zero in 2006.
(4) The supporting measures and export subsidy for agriculture
Domestic support for the agricultural products: According to the Agriculture Protocol of WTO, the developing members without domestic AMS concession commitments should bound its policy support falling into the extent of Yellow Box not higher than 10% of its production value. The SINO-US agreement about agriculture has set down the relevant ration at 8.5%, lower than the deserved level for the developing countries.
Export Subsidy: At the fifth working party on china's accession to the WTO, the Chinese delegations declare to abolish export subsidy for the agricultural products whilst keep up reducing tariffs and removing non-tariff barriers.
