The WTO negotiations in the field of agriculture and food : Strategic positions of the US and China

Chinese accession to the WTO will give it the right to participate in the current agriculturalnegotiations. An obvious question is whether China’s accession is likely to make agreementin the agricultural negotiations easier or more difficult. China’s WTO membership will affectthe alliances and coalitions that are formed between the principal participants. There isclearly a need to analyse the effects of Chinese WTO membership on the EU/US dialogue inparticular. This report begins with an analysis of developments in US farm policy since theconclusion of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture in 1995. It examines recentagricultural policy changes in the US and the likely outcome for the next Farm Bill,preparations for which have already started in the US Congress (Chapter 1). China is not yeta participant in these negotiations, so the views attributed to it in the report are speculativebut informed by an analysis of China’s agricultural policy objectives and trade regime whichis presented in Chapter 2. This chapter also describes what is known about the details ofChina’s WTO accession offer on agriculture, and it evaluates the growing literature on whatChina’s WTO membership might mean for China’s agricultural trade. Finally, Chapter 3examines the main issues at stake in the current round of agricultural trade negotiations. Theprincipal objective of this chapter is to identify those areas where China’s interests are likelyto coincide with the EU’s, and where those interests are likely to differ.