Posted on 08/21/2004 1:53:46 PM PDT by wagglebee
BEIJING - China recorded its first-ever agricultural trade deficit in the first half of the year, casting doubts on its ability to remain a self-sufficient food producer, state press reported Friday.
The deficit came in at 3.73 billion dollars, the Ministry of Agriculture was cited as saying by the China Daily.
Agricultural officials said maintaining food surpluses China has enjoyed for years would likely no longer be possible due to the country's opening to foreign competition under its World Trade Organisation (WTO) obligations.
Over the eight years to 2003, China averaged an agriculture trade surplus of 4.3 billion dollars a year, the report said.
Although China exported 10.62 billion dollars of farm produce in the first half of 2004, an increase of nearly 11% from a year ago, imports soared even more.
They were up 62.5% year-on-year to a record 14.35 billion dollars, the government figures show.
"The deficit is glaring but not surprising given the country's commitments following WTO entry, the implementation of tariff rate quotas and competition in the global market," said Han Yijun, a researcher with the ministry's Research Centre for Rural Economy.
The report said a fall off in wheat exports had affected the headline figure.
China was a net exporter of wheat in the first half of last year, but it imported 2.727 million tons of wheat by the end of June this year.
Compared with the same six-month period last year, China imported 1.8 times more grains, or 4.115 million tons, from January to June this year.
The deficit was largely a result of the sharp increases in imports of grain, edible oil and cotton, the report quoted Cheng Guoqiang, researcher with the State Council Development Research Centre, as saying.
Since 1998, China's grain production has dropped by 15.7% to reach a low of 431 million tons last year as many farmers have found it unprofitable to till the land, according to official Chinese statistics.
How would china like to be flooded with Wheat.
How much do we curtail our food production?.
they can't provide the food they need, they have dried up a major aquafer and they NEED American grain for food and feed stocks. Hungrey workers riot.
Chinese agriculture is way behind the times. It is a wonder that they maintained a surplus this long.
It's amazing how far your food supply will go when you starve your people.
WTO and other "free" trade agreements will not ALLOW it.
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