Comparative Study Of The Grain Market Access Policies Between China And Vietnam

After the institution of World Trade Organization(WTO),it was established that any country intending to join the organization must first open negotiations with other members on the market-access policies.For developing countries,the agricultural products market,especially the grain market access has been a priority for all negotiations.China and Vietnam entered WTO in 2001 and 2007 respectively.Although China and Vietnam are both developing countries in transition,they differ in terms of the level of economic development and the grain trade status.This lead to the differences observed in the two countries on grain market access commitments they made on entry into the WTO.In the past ten years,the economic and trade effects of the policies have been fully revealed.Under the background of increasing agricultural trade liberalization,it is very important to evaluate and compare the effect of grain market access policies between China and Vietnam.This will be very valuable towards ensuring the improvement of the grain trade policies and promote grain trade cooperation between the two countries.Through this study comparing trade of main agricultural products with particular reference on grains between China and Vietnam,recommendations can be made on enhancing foreign trade policies in Vietnam.In this study,the background and differences in the grain market-access policies between the two countries were analyzed.More so,the differences in the outcome of the policies were compared alongside the different patterns of grain trade in the two countries after accession into the WTO.This study first took a critical review of related grain trade theory,market access policies,performance and the outcomes of various WTO negotiations with China and Vietnam.Furthermore,it theoretically analyzed the impact mechanism of grain market-access policies on grain trade.The study also evaluated the changes in grain market-access policies and trade structure of two countries before and after their accession into the WTO.Through the theoretical and empirical analysis of the changes,course,performance and influence of Grain market-access policies in China and Vietnam,we got the following conclusions:(1)The tariff levels in China and Vietnam have both been declining.(2)The main reason for the grain market access policy differences between the two countries is that there are differences on their factor endowments,domestic grain demand and trade policies.(3)General government spending,which is included in the Green Box policy,is used more than Yellow Box policy.(4)Expanding grain market access has both positive and negative influence to the grain industry and the stakeholders After China and Vietnam joined the WTO,the adjustment of Grain market access has brought some positive influence on Grain industry development,which is mainly reflected in the increased consumer welfare,decreased production cost of Grain industry and the improved Grain production and trade structure.But at the same time,the opening of Grain import market has negative impact on some grain produced,and also on the interests of the farmers.(5)Agricultural trade cooperation has huge potential because of the increasing volume of grain trade and the change of product trade structure following the principle of comparative advantage.Although both China and Vietnam has low technology content and added value in their export commodities when compared with most developed countries,however both countries have taken the effective market access policies and the grain trade has been developing steadily since accession into the WTO.Bilateral trade of grain products between China and Vietnam presents obvious growth trend.Vietnam has become China’s biggest trading partner of rice import,switching from trade deficit to surplus.Vietnam mainly exports rice to China and China mainly exports corn to Vietnam,which conforms to the common agricultural development interests.