Agricultural Market and Policy in China: New Development Facing the WTO Entry

Agricultural development is of special importance for a country like China with 70% of its population living in the rural areas. It is important not only for China's food sufficiency, but also for the rural employment and farmers' income. The performance of the agricultural sector in recent years is fairly good viewed from the production of most principal agricultural products. But the agricultural market situation is deteriorating in many aspects. This has caused many serious results and is threatening the sustainable development of agriculture. It is more likely blues that this trend will continue for some time. The new progress in China's negotiations for its entry into WTO has aroused more concerns for the future development of agriculture.

The analysis of this paper will focus on three things:
1. the most recent development of China's agricultural market and policy;
2. new progress of negotiations for China's accession to the WTO;
3. the prospects of China's agricultural development and policy suggestions.