Improvement Of The Legal System Of Agricultural Environmental Subsidies

Agriculture is the foundation for social stability and economic progress.Being a traditional agriculture nation,China has splendid agricultural civilization.After implementing reform and opening-up,China made great efforts to promote agriculture.The government introduced a series of measures to support agriculture.So,the grain yield was gradually increased,and farmers’ income was enhanced.However,in recent years,influenced by natural and human factors,China’s agricultural production has been not only restricted by economic growth to a large extend but also significantly hindered by environmental pollution.Some policies only took boosting yield and farmers’ income as the only target,which shows one-sidedness of China’s agricultural policies.For example,the public policies targeted at boosting production and income,and fiscal subsidies encouraged use of pesticides,fertilizers and films.They all resulted in greater agricultural non-point source pollution.Now,in the rural area of China,the severest environmental problem is non-point source pollutions,which include agricultural water pollution,soil pollution,air pollution and garbage pollution.In addition,excess land reclamation and unreasonable use of resources have made the agricultural ecological system badly damaged.These environmental problems have hindered agricultural economic growth and sustainable development of China to a large extent.Moreover,after China joined WTO,China’s agricultural subsidy system has been challenged by other countries.Some countries think that China’s price subsidy for agricultural products made prices of Chinese agricultural products fairly low.When being exported to other nations,they will bring great impact to markets of the import nations.Therefore,they refused to import Chinese agricultural products for green barrier.Their actions have greatly influenced China’s foreign trade and have caused inestimable economic loss.According to this situation,Chinese government introduced agricultural environmental subsidy system to guide agricultural producers to protect the environment actively.Agricultural environmental subsidy system is a financial incentive policy implemented by the government in order to encourage agricultural producers to take the initiative to prevent pollution and protect the environment.The subsidies can help control pollution,improve the environment and protect biological diversity from the source and provide guarantee for safety and sanitation of the agricultural environment and agricultural products.The author holds that the agricultural environmental subsidy system shall be improved according to relevant rules of WTO,and a set of feasible,efficient and stable subsidies shall be formulated based on the current situation and characteristics of China’s legislation so as to protect multi-functionality and sustainable development of agriculture.Besides introduction and conclusion,this thesis has five parts.The first part is an overview of agricultural environmental subsidies.First,the basic conception of agricultural environmental subsidy was introduced.Agricultural subsidy is the predecessor of agricultural environmental subsidy.In order to analyze the basic theory of agricultural environmental subsidy,agricultural subsidy should be made clear first.In this part,the author interpreted agricultural subsidy under the rules of WTO,summarized the characteristics of agricultural subsidies,and further explained the definition of agricultural environmental subsidy.Second,the author explained the connotation,extension and nature of agricultural environmental subsidies.Based on the above,the author classified agricultural environmental subsidies into subsidy for rural infrastructure construction,subsidy for agricultural pollution reduction and subsidy for ecological protection.Third,the role of agricultural environmental subsidies was analyzed and evaluated.The author mainly analyzed the possible positive role and negative role of the agricultural environmental subsidy system from the perspectives of economic cost,environmental protection effect and social influence.The second part mainly introduces the basic theories of agricultural environmental subsidy.The theoretical bases for agricultural environmental subsidy system include public financial theory,equity theory,agricultural multi-functionality theory and sustainable agriculture theory.In this part,the author mainly introduced the connotations and concrete contents of the four theories and elaborated the internal connections between agricultural environmental subsidy system and the above theories.The third part introduces the current situation and existing problems in China’s legislation on agricultural environmental subsidies.Firstly,the author analyzed the current regulations on agricultural environmental subsidies and the implementation effect.Secondly,the author pointed out the four problems with the relevant legal system,namely conflict in power between administrative subjects,incomplete content of agricultural environmental subsidies,defective supervision system and low marketization.In the fourth part,the author analyzed the agricultural environmental subsidy system under WTO rules and made a horizontal comparison.The author firstly introduced and commented on the rules related to agricultural environmental subsidy in WTO Agreement on Agriculture and Agreement on Subsidy;and secondly introduced the successful cases of some developed countries in legislation on agricultural environmental subsidy.For example,US government introduced Non-Point Source Pollution Control Grant,Water and Soil Conservation Program and Protection Promise Program,among which payment of hire and financial support are both agricultural environmental subsidy measures."Common Agriculture Policy" of EU has changed its focus from promoting agricultural production to guiding sustainable development of environment in rural areas.EU improved the legal system of agricultural environmental subsidy and introduced unhooked agricultural subsidy policy,compulsory cross-observation system and voluntary agricultural environmental agreement.Japan set up the agricultural product certification system and ecological farmer certification system depending on agricultural environmental subsidies in order to stimulate initiative and enthusiasm of the farmers to protect the environment.The fifth part is about improvement of legislation concerning agricultural environmental subsidies in China.Regulations on agricultural environmental subsidy system in China are rather dispersed and have not been systemized.So,it’s in urgent need to build a comprehensive framework for agricultural environmental subsidy system.First,qualifications and powers of the administrative subjects should be clarified.Second,the evaluation system for agricultural environmental subsidies should be improved.Moreover,the regulatory system for agricultural environmental subsidies should be built.Lastly,a market-oriented operation mechanism should be implemented.