reply Success of the Fifteenth International Conference on Agricultural Trade Policy

On November 25, the 15th International Conference on Agricultural Trade Policy was successfully held in Beijing, hosted by the Agricultural Trade Promotion Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Agricultural Industry Sub-Council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), and co-sponsored by Weifang Municipal People's Government. With the theme of “China's Agricultural Trade Development in the Context of Re-globalization”, the conference is the first special event of the 2nd Chain Expo. Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele, Ambassador of Brazil to China, Marcos Galvão, and Ambassador of South Africa to China, Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele, attended the meeting and delivered speeches.Zhang Zhili said that China has always firmly supported economic globalization, practiced the concept of free trade, and safeguarded the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization as the core. Over the past 20 years since its accession to the WTO, it has taken the initiative to integrate into the globalization process in the field of agriculture, earnestly fulfilled its WTO accession commitments, continuously improved the level of opening up of agriculture to the outside world, shared the Chinese market with the world, and become an important driving force for global agricultural development and trade growth. At present, the risks and challenges facing global agriculture are even more severe than those of 30 years ago, and there is a significant increase in unstable, uncertain and unpredictable factors in food security. China is willing to strengthen cooperation with other countries to ensure food security as the bottom line to safeguard the resilience of the global agricultural industry chain supply chain, to pursue fairness and justice as the principle to improve the governance of global agricultural trade, to strengthen dialogue and consultation as a means to stimulate the new momentum of global agricultural economic and trade growth, to join hands to promote the process of re-globalization for the future, and to push forward the construction of a more sustainable, resilient, fairer and more inclusive global agricultural trade system.Li Qingshuang said that building a modern agricultural industrial system is an important way to build an agricultural powerhouse, and creating a stable and resilient agricultural industrial chain supply chain is an important part of the modern agricultural industrial system. China insists on transforming the mode of agricultural development, accelerating the building of green agricultural industry chain, improving the quality of arable land, significantly enhancing the water-saving capacity, enriching the supply of green agricultural products, and achieving positive results in the green development of agriculture. The 2nd Chain Expo will be grandly opened soon, in which the green agricultural chain will attract more than 100 Chinese and foreign enterprises, and the relevant leading enterprises will jointly release the initiative of “Jointly Responding to the Challenges of Global Climate Change”. It is believed that with the joint efforts of all parties concerned, the 2nd Chain Expo will make due contribution to the promotion of international cooperation of the agricultural industry chain and supply chain.Pogon said that trade reforms could help improve food security, reduce the carbon footprint of food and agriculture, and encourage climate-smart agricultural innovation and more sustainable food agriculture systems. Big data and artificial intelligence, as well as a favorable policy environment for trade in services, can help build more sustainable and resilient food agriculture systems and improve the efficiency of the entire agricultural value chain. China, as the largest developing country and one of the most active members of the WTO, plays an important role in helping to build consensus and support reform.Cullen said that emerging economies, represented by China, are becoming increasingly important in global agricultural markets and trade, and that China's increased investment in infrastructure globally through the Belt and Road Initiative has enhanced trade routes, strengthened supply chains, reduced transportation costs, and facilitated importers and exporters, which is conducive to agriculture and trade facilitation. Trade facilitation.This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Brazil and China, and President Xi Jinping's state visit to Brazil is of landmark significance, said Gao Wang. Against the backdrop of new challenges to open trade, efforts should be made to support multilateralism, transparency must be promoted, regulatory frameworks must be strengthened, international standards must be upheld, and unimpeded agricultural trade is essential to ensure food and nutritional security in China and globally.Xie Shengwen said that South Africa and China have broad prospects for cooperation in agricultural trade, and the two sides have great potential for cooperation in breed research and development, technology transfer, animal vaccines, pest control, investment and other aspects. South Africa hopes to reduce China's import tariffs on some of South Africa's agricultural products through negotiations, and gain preferential market access to China's food market, so that South African farmers can compete more fairly with other countries.In the keynote report session, Mr. Chong Quan, President of China WTO Research Society, Mr. Ma Hongtao, Director of Agricultural Trade Promotion Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Ulla Kask, Senior Counselor of Agriculture and Commodity Division of WTO, Mr. Vinod Ahuja, Acting Representative of FAO in China, Mr. Ye Xingqing, Researcher of Development Research Center of the State Council, Mr. Simon Clements, Deputy Director of China Office of WFP, and Mr. Simon Koh, Deputy Director of Weifang Office of WFP, were invited to present their views on this topic. Simon Clements, Deputy Director of WFP China Office, and Lv Shanshan, Vice Mayor of Weifang City, Shandong Province, made special reports. Zhao Lijun, deputy director of the Agricultural Trade Promotion Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, presided over the session and released two monographs, China Agricultural Trade Development Report 2024 and Study on WTO Agricultural Negotiations and China's Agricultural Support Policies on behalf of the conference organizers.Chongquan said that while trade liberalization and economic globalization have brought unprecedented growth to the world economy, problems such as income inequality and unbalanced regional development have also emerged, which not only threaten the continued stability of trade, but also pose a challenge to global poverty reduction and sustainable development goals. These contradictions need to be resolved through globalization and global cooperation, firstly, to promote multilateral cooperation and international rule building, secondly, to promote agricultural technology innovation and knowledge sharing, thirdly, to promote green agriculture and sustainable development, fourthly, to strengthen global food security cooperation, and fifthly, to ensure the fairness and stability of global agricultural trade.Ma Hongtao said, agricultural trade is a necessary way to ensure food security, is the optimal resources to serve the diplomatic situation, but also the inevitable choice to build a strong agricultural country, and then globalization to promote the development of agricultural trade is of great significance. Since accession to the WTO, China's agriculture is fully integrated into the world trading system, the breadth and depth of opening up to the outside world continues to expand, agricultural trade has achieved rapid growth. China is not only a participant and beneficiary of globalization, but also a contributor and promoter. In recent years, global economic growth has slowed down, trade protectionism has risen, and the food security situation is facing risks, but the scale of China's agricultural trade has maintained steady growth, and the level of agricultural trade liberalization has continued to rise, making China a “stabilizer” for the operation of the global agricultural market, and making positive contributions to the promotion of re-globalization. At present, the development of agricultural trade in the context of re-globalization is facing serious challenges, and stronger measures must be taken to cope with them. First, we should focus on optimizing the structure and layout of the import market, secondly, we should focus on improving the quality and efficiency of agricultural exports, and thirdly, we should accelerate the cultivation of new advantages in international competition in agricultural trade, and plan and promote the high-quality development of agricultural trade from the perspective of promoting the opening up of agriculture to the outside world at a higher level.Ullah said the domestic support provided by WTO members under the environment program is now increasing to help solve the problem of climate change. China is the member that uses the environment program the most, exceeding the share of the European Union and the United States combined, and half of the domestic support is proposed through the environment program, indicating that China attaches great importance to environmental protection. Domestic support from the Chinese government is increasing, helping farmers transition to more sustainable and environmentally friendly modes of agricultural production.