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WTO 'will hurt small farmers'
Eastday
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Farmers engaged in small-scale production of staple agricultural products will bear the brunt of China's World Trade Organization membership,an expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has warned.
However,Zhang Xiaoshan,director of the Rural Development Research Institute under the CASS,told the Fifth China Beijing International High-Tech Expo on Tuesday that farmers involved in the production of labor-intensive,high-value-added agricultural products in the eastern and coastal areas of China would be potential beneficiaries of the WTO.
Meanwhile in the northeastern and the middle regions,a bastion for land-intensive cereals,soybeans and cotton,farmers would suffer loss of benefits,Xinhua news agency re-ported.
There are more than 200million small farmers in China,each household possessing 0.6hectare of land on average,Zhang calculated.
Implementing its tariff quota commitments to the WTO meant China should replace 6.4percent of its sowing area,and 6.5percent of rural laborers.
Farmers would have to leave their land,and each farm laborer would lose 102yuan (US$12.3)on average,according to Zhang.
Pure farmers,making up nearly 60percent of the total across the country,would be direct victims of import influxes and readjustment of the agricultural structure,the expert noted.
Therefore,if China failed to take effective measures,the benefits generating from current domestic policies would be offset by the impact of imports,he said.
Zhang cited Jilin Province as an ex-ample.
Jilin is a large grain-producing province,and around 60percent of its grain product is put to the market,nearly twice the national average.
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