INFLUENCES OF TECHNICAL BARRIER TO TRADE ON CHINESE AGRICULTURAL EXPORT

Zhang Yan?Feng Baoyi

【Abstract】Nowadays, technical barriers to trade (TBT) have exerted a great effect on international trade. As a new measure of trade protection, TBT makes agricultural export in our country face many problems and plights. To deal with the dilemma,establishing the TBT system of Chinese agricultural products will play a significant role of our agricultural products in the international market, improving the quality of our countrys agricultural products, boycotting the import of the foreign agricultural products and protecting the market of our agricultural products effectively . To confront TBT is a complex and systematic project, which requires coordinated actions both from the corporations and the government.

【Key words】technical barriers to trade; agricultural export; countermeasures

I. Introduction

Technical barriers to trade (TBTs), a category of non-tariff barriers to trade, are the widely divergent measures that countries use to regulate markets, protect their consumers, or preserve their natural resources (among other objectives), but they also can be used (or perceived by foreign countries) to discriminate against imports in order to protect domestic industries.

In the early days, the domestic scholars research on TBT mainly used qualitative analysis method. Domestic scholars pointed out that TBT refers to a mandatory or voluntary technical nature adopted by a State or a regional organization to maintain national or regional safety, protect human health and safety, protect the health and safety of animals and plants, protect the environment, prevent fraud, and measures which ensure product quality, such as technical standards and regulations, conformity assessment procedures, packaging labeling requirements, product quarantine inspection system, green technology trade barriers, these measures become obstacles of other countries free accessing to a country or regional market, through the analysis of foreign laws and regulations and domestic cases. Because TBT has the characteristics of broadness, systemicity, duality, concealment, operability and diffusion, TBT becomes the main challenge the Chinese product exports encountering under the situation of Countries tariffs having been significantly reduced and traditional non-tariff barriers having been eliminated and regulated.

With the development of economic globalization, agricultural products have become the focus of all the countries TBT reporting for its unique political status and economic nature. There are more and more TBT throughout the world. The occurrence of these barriers has its own profound social and technical background. China is a large agricultural country and the export trade of agricultural products plays an important role in Chinas international trade. Although the export scale of agricultural products of China expands constantly, in recent years, developed countries continue to enhance the requirements of agricultural imports itself, the strict technology inspection and the health quarantine as well as the questions about pesticide residues, which makes the exported agricultural products of China blocked by foreign countries for the quality problems and leads to serious economic losses.

II. Chinas Agricultural Export Trade under the Condition of TBT

Technical measures of agricultural products, agricultural production and other industrial chain were related to the management system, quality standards, safety testing, quality and safety certification system. It is reported that in recent years, 29 countries have set different technical barriers to Chinas agricultural exports. Of which 13 countries have clearly issued a technical ban on the export of different agricultural products in China. The technical barriers have shown that the main agricultural products in China which was encountering the TBTs limits: live animals, poultry products, aquatic products, honey, fruit and fruit products, edible vegetables, roots and tubers, tea and so on. Obviously, these agricultural products are Chinas labor-intensive products with comparative advantage.

The technical trade barrier to the agricultural products has dual influences on the export trade of the agricultural products in our country: in the short term, the exported agricultural products in our country cannot meet with the technical demands regulated in the importing countries, which causes the decline in export and amount of exports; or for the purpose of reaching to the standard of the importing countries, the exported agricultural products in our country are forced to increase the export cost thus to make the original comparative advantages gradually lost as well as make the competitiveness and foreign currency earnings reduced, which should not be disregardful, while in the long term, the role of the “anti-driving mechanism” of the technical trade barrier to the agricultural products prompts our country to cope with the technical trade barrier to the agricultural products positively thus to provide strong external power for the enterprise technology progress of export trade of the agricultural products in our country.

III. The Negative Influence of the Technical Trade Barrier to the Agricultural Products

At present, there exists with two kinds of technical barriers in the field of agricultural products: one is the demands for the enterprises to establish and implement the environmental management system as well as the technical demands on the labels of agricultural products; another is the demands on safety of agricultural products, which is caused owing to the safety and health of the agricultural products for the consumers. The improvement of the living quality and the popularization of safety awareness make the technical trade barrier to the agricultural products more reasonable and legal, which no doubt brings barriers to the agricultural products export of our country.

3.1 Increasing the Export Cost of the Agricultural Products in Our Country

The direct influence of the technical trade barrier to the agricultural products is reflected in the influence on the export cost of the agricultural products, firstly, the input in the technique, environmental protection and safety directly increase ; secondly, the expenses for the enterprise needing to obtain related authentications increase the export cost of the agricultural products; thirdly, the expensive inspection expenses of importing countries owing to lacking of advanced inspection equipment in domestic correspondingly increase the export cost of the agricultural products.

3.2 Reducing the Export Competitiveness of the Agricultural Products in Our Country

It can be shown based on RCA which presents the comparative advantage indicators to be used for comprehensively reflecting the various factors affecting the competitive advantages of products. It refers to the rate of one kind of products accounting for the total amount of exports of one country dividing by the rate of the global amount of exports of the kind of products accounting for the global amount of exports.

IV. The Positive Influence of the Technical Trade Barrier to the Agricultural Products

4.1 Promoting the Optimization of the Agricultural Production Structure in Our Country

As for most of the current agricultural product export enterprises in our country, their management level, technical level, agricultural product development capability and latest information obtaining capability are still in a lower level, meanwhile, the constant emerging of the technical trade barrier to the agricultural products challenges these enterprises, which will cause the gradually declining proportion of the primary agricultural products possessing lower technology contents in the international agricultural products trade, promote the enterprises to adjust the agricultural products development strategy and largely develop the agricultural products possessing high technology contents.

4.2 Helpful to Promote the Development of the Agricultural Products Export Trade in Our Country

In the long run, the technical trade barrier to the agricultural products also provides strong power to enlarge the agricultural products export trade in our country. For a long time, our country has always paying attention to the quantity of agricultural products but neglecting the demands on food safety, up to September 18 of 2001, the Ministry of Agriculture published the industrial standards on nuisance free agricultural products, wherein, 62 kinds of chemical pollutants were involved in the agricultural product quality standard of our country. While there have been hundreds of maximum limit standards of agriculture in food in the developed countries, which causes the agricultural products export of our country is restricted frequently. The technology of agricultural products shows the safety problems of the agricultural products in our country to some extent, which urges the agricultural products export enterprises in our country to further standardize the existing agricultural products production and management system. In recent years, the governments in our country, the agricultural products industry and enterprises have adopted positive measures to cope with TBT, which enlarges the agricultural products export to some extent.

V. Measures to Cope with the Technical Trade Barriers in Our Country

5.1 Establish the Unified and Coordinated System as well as the Early-warning Mechanism

Comprehensively consider to establish the complete technical standards, technical laws and regulations, qualified evaluation as well as the inspection and quarantine system, packaging and label systems. In accordance with the industrial development of our country and the regulations of WTO agreement, establish a mechanism which can guarantee the good collaboration and effective operation of various law enforcement agencies. Apply the favorable clauses in TBT agreement and Hygiene and Plant Health Quarantine Agreement (SPS agreement) to create situations for the exports of our country. Aiming at the foreign discriminatory technical trade measures, strengthen the foreign negotiation level, safeguard the interests of the import and export enterprises and create the fair trade environment.

5.2 Establish and Perfect the Technical Laws and Regulations System, Establish the Congruence, Unified and Standard Certification and Accreditation System

Strengthen the legislation work related to technique, establish the technical laws and regulations system not only conforming to the international conventions but also fully reflecting the actual situation and development demands of our country. Organize and modify the current technical laws and regulations system, abstract the parts violating the international conventions and going against the principle of socialist market economy, based on the actual demands of our country, referring to the international experience and aiming at the current drawbacks of the technical laws and regulations system, complement, enrich and perfect the legislation. Rapidly establish and perfect the green food technology standard, certification and inspection system. Conduct overall management and inspection on the production and sales of the agricultural products thus to ensure the standard and quality of the green food, positively promote the agricultural products to develop towards normalization, standardization and legislation and build the “green channel” of agricultural products.

5.3 Positively Promote the Green Management

Green management refers to integrating the thought and idea of environmental protection into the operation management of the enterprises. The enterprises should achieve three main objectives in implementing green management: firstly, realizing the material resources utilization maximization. Based on the intensive-type scientific management, make the various material resources utilized most effectively and sufficiently as well as make the output of unit resources maximized and optimal; secondly, realizing the minimization of waste discharge. Based on implementing the prevention-first measures and overall environmental management, minimize the various wastes in the production and operation process; thirdly, realizing the product greening suitable to the market demands. Based on the market demands, develop the safe and qualified products which have no pollution to the environment and consumers.

5.4 Pay High Attention to the Technical Trade Barrier, Improve the Technical Level and Management Level, Optimize the Trade Product Structure

In the exported commodity structure of our country, the primary products of rough manufacturing and low added-value account for a large proportion, quite a number of agricultural and sideline products as well as industrial products can not meet with the product environment standard of importing countries. Therefore, the foreign economic trade enterprises should improve the environmental-protection science and technology level, strive to increase the added value of the exported products, improve the technical standard, safety standards, sanitary standard and environmental-protection standard. In the process of product development, it is needed to persist in participating in the market competition based on the environmental-protection competitiveness from the aspects such as technical facilities, production equipment, product quality and package, and expand the extensive green markets for the foreign trade export in our country.

VI. Conclusion

Based on analyzing the export situation of the agricultural products in our country under the technical barrier environment, the export of agricultural products in our country is not damaged largely on the whole, however, the technical barriers have obvious hindering role in the export development of the advantageous agricultural products in our country. Though the agricultural products in our country have certain adaptation to the technical barriers, in the long term, the agricultural products will be weakened in the competitiveness and the international market share will be reduced owing to the comparatively advantageous products hindered in the international market, which will produce a negative effect on the consumer psychology, therefore, the export of the agricultural products in our country should adjust the export strategy from the perspective of sustainable development.

Firstly, rapidly establishing the agricultural product quality guarantee system connecting with the international society and reinforce the internal work. Secondly, stressing the diversification strategy of market and spread the risks.Thirdly, optimizing the market early-warning mechanism and make preparations.

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