ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on China's World Trade Organization (WTO) accession on its agriculture and its rural population and describes China's main commitments to liberalize its trade and production of agricultural goods. It discusses the short-term and long-term impacts on China's agriculture of its WTO accession. The chapter explores the possible alliance of China and the United States that may emerge out of their own interest to jointly push for liberalization of agricultural production and trade within the framework of the WTO. However, before China becomes a major exporter of agricultural products, it has some serious technical barriers to overcome. China needs to increase the range of varieties in its vegetable and fruit exports and to learn how to raise the quality of its products to the international standard. The chapter explains why China's WTO accession will greatly accelerate its urbanization and help China absorb most of its surplus labor that will be released from its rural areas.
