The Analysis of Rice Policy Reform in Taiwan since Its Accession to WTO

• Main Authors: Ju-lung Lee, 李如容
• Other Authors: Jia-hsi Weng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/54481493193625838100

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 中山學術研究所 === 94 === After its accession to the WTO, under the open market for agricultural products and reducing domestic support, Taiwan needs to import brown rice of at least 144,000 metric tons, following the rule of minimum access in order to meet the requirements’ of the WTO. To protect farmer’s interest and agriculturalecology, the Taiwan government continues to implement paddy land utilization adjustment policy and price guarantee policy, which sustains government supplement to rice but it fails to reach the good of price stability in the market. This means all related policies still have room for improvement. In recent years, new rounds of negotiation for agriculture under the WTO framework have begun and, due to the pressure of negotiation, it is unavoidable to implement import tariff for rice. Thus, Taiwan’s agricultural sectors are under the threat of a collapse, and to maintain the development of rice farming industry under the WTO regulations will be a very important issue. Also, the government should take more aggressive and prospective measures to overcome the current difficulties of the rice industry. This paper will explore rice policies in Taiwan and propose on improvement with consideration for a long term agricultural policy. Taiwan implements paddy land utilization adjustment policy for the preparation of tariff systems. Although this will meet the WTO regulation in the short term, it would experience risks and challenge, in the future. Currently, alternative plans are not available and what is suggested in this paper basically follows the American FSRIA and Japanese rice stability policies to reach a balance between government and farmers under the WTO regulation, trying to eliminate market intervention and reduce government’s financial burden. With the decline of rice price and rent, the rice industry will develop towards a large scale of management and rice competitiveness will be upgraded, which will then increase farmer’s revenue even when subsidies are reduced.