Agriculture and Agricultural Policies in China and India Post-Uruguay Round

Abstract

Both India and China, as participants in the Uruguay Round, have had the Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) before them as they continued to reform their agricultural and trade policies over recent years. China did not join the WTO until December 2001, but it has nonetheless been undertaking reforms and has entered into substantial commitments to further reform its farm sector by end-2004, when all other countriesÂ’ UR commitments are due to be fully implemented. This paper reviews the progress expected to be made over the ten years since 1995 in these two populous developing countries. It summarizes their structural adjustments to production and trade as a consequence of their (and othersÂ’) economic growth and policy changes, before focusing on the nature and extent of the agricultural and other policy reforms themselves. It concludes by drawing out the implications of these developments for the roles these countries might play in international agricultural markets and in the agricultural negotiations of the Doha Round.