About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (February 17, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govehkw0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ____ ~ Research Service U.S. Challenges to China's Farm Policies Updated February 17, 2022 In 2019, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in favor of the United States in two cases that the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) filed against China, alleging that China's agricultural policies were inconsistent with its WTO obligations. The United States and China disagree about whether China has changed its policies sufficiently to conform to the WTO rulings, and the two cases have been referred to arbitration. China's Farm Support Spending In the first case (DS511), USTR contended that China's support policies for growers of wheat, rice, and corn exceeded the support limit it agreed to in 2001, when it joined the WTO, by nearly $100 billion from 2012 through 2015. USTR asserted that these policies created an incentive for Chinese farmers to increase production of the subsidized crops, displacing imports and distorting international trade. On February 28, 2019, the WTO dispute settlement body agreed with major parts of the U.S. complaint, and recommended changes to bring Chinese rice and wheat policies into compliance with China's WTO commitments. China did not appeal the ruling but committed to abide by it. China restated that commitment in its Phase One trade agreement with the United States in January 2020. On June 18, 2020, China notified the WTO that it had implemented changes to its rice and wheat policies to comply with the WTO recommendations. China adopted an approach that the dispute settlement body had indicated as potentially legal under the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture. China said it would cap the annual quantity of wheat and rice eligible to receive government support at a level substantially less than total national production, and agreed that each year, in advance of planting, it would announce both the support prices and the maximum production amounts eligible for government procurement at those prices. Any quantities produced beyond the announced level would not be eligible for government support and would therefore not count against support limits. In 2016, China reported that it had purchased 28.5 million metric tons (MMT) of wheat, representing 6.6% of the total value of national wheat production. Under the prior system, the dispute settlement body found this to violate China's WTO commitments because there was no cap on government procurement, and the price support could have led to greater domestic production. Under the new system, the eligible quantity is announced in advance, so the policy can be perceived as not encouraging production beyond that cap. With the flexibility to set these amounts annually, China can alter the quantity of subsidized Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11469 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most