The Enlightenment of American agricultural protection policy to China

Introduction: first, from the economic point of view, agriculture is a weak industry No matter from the comparative interests between domestic industries, or from the ability and efficiency of export to earn foreign exchange, agriculture is not an ideal support and protection object, but agriculture is a special industry, and its products are also a special product The reason is very simple: we can not want luxury private cars or high-end household appliances, but we can not lack the consumption of food in a day, and the demand for quantity of this consumption shows typical rigid characteristics It is obviously irrational for a large population country like the United States to develop its high-tech industry purely from the perspective of economic benefits, and to rely on the international agricultural market for food supply Therefore, the constant and unremitting guarantee demand for agricultural products is the fundamental reason for the implementation of agricultural protection and promotion of agricultural development in the United States In order to improve the guarantee coefficient of agricultural products supply, in order to cope with the possible food shortage crisis at any time, it is necessary to ensure its agricultural production capacity, so the United States has carried out strict agricultural production protection But another problem will arise naturally: under normal circumstances, the production capacity of American agriculture far exceeds its consumption demand, that is to say, there will inevitably be a regular problem of surplus agricultural products In this way, a dilemma is inevitably placed in front of American policy makers: on the one hand, to maintain its strong agricultural production capacity, on the other hand, to cope with the threat of frequent product surplus to agricultural production The best way to solve this problem is to sell the surplus agricultural products overseas, which is the basic background of the agricultural trade protection policy formulated by the United States Therefore, the international agricultural product market has become the most ideal balance regulator for the United States to maintain its strong agricultural production capacity: in normal and peaceful times, the surplus agricultural products are sold overseas to maintain the normal operation of its agriculture; in abnormal times (when food shortage is in danger), the huge domestic demand for agricultural products is supported by the strong domestic agricultural production capacity, Thus, it can avoid the huge impact of food shortage on the national economy, and ensure that the national economy can maintain a stable operation The biggest role of agricultural protection is shown here From the above analysis, we can see that the agricultural protection policy has its inevitability and pertinence The main measures are to start with the relative fragility of agriculture and the surplus of agricultural products (1) for the surplus of agricultural products, we should protect it from three aspects: supply, demand and price support Xgg 1 is to reduce the supply of agricultural products Therefore, the U.S government has taken a series of measures as follows: xgg (1) production restriction policy: planting area reduction plan The content of the plan was initially (in the 1930s) a seeding area quota and a sales quota The so-called sown area quota is to estimate the total output and sown area of the next year according to the annual ending inventory of a certain product and the forecast of the domestic market demand and unit yield of the next year, and then distribute it to each region respectively, and implement it to each farm according to the proportion of sown area in the history of each farm The sales quota is the maximum amount of a certain agricultural product distributed to each farm according to the total output All farms that produce and sell agricultural products according to the plan will be supported by higher prices, and those that exceed the quota will be punished accordingly In the 1950s and 1960s, when agricultural products increased dramatically, the government implemented the voluntary conversion plan to guide farmers to withdraw part of their cultivated land from production for soil protection The specific embodiment of the plan is the soil bank plan stipulated by the agricultural law of 1956, which encourages farmers to return part of their land to cultivation in a short or long term through the implementation of subsidies In 1961, in order to reduce the stock and output of feed grain, the government implemented the emergency feed grain plan, which stipulates that: when the farmers stop farming 20% of the cultivated land, they are entitled to obtain the prescribed benefits from the government, that is, to get 50% of the normal output of the land; if the land is stopped farming more than 20%, the government can increase the compensation proportion to 60% In 1985, the food security law added the protective reserve plan, which stipulates that farmers who participate in the plan and sign a 10-year contract with the government can get subsidies from the government equivalent to half of the total cost of all the land rent and green and soil conservation measures Xgg (2) withdraws from the supply policy, i.e the agricultural product reserve plan ① Federal Agricultural Reserve Program The main content of this plan: when the supply of agricultural products is too much and the market price is lower than the loan cost, the farmers can hand over the agricultural products to the agricultural products credit company, and these agricultural products will be stored as the federal agricultural products reserve In addition, agricultural credit companies can also directly purchase some surplus agricultural products in the market ② Farmers' agricultural products reserve plan In 1977, the grain law and the agricultural law established a four-year grain reserve plan for farmers, encouraging farmers to reserve a part of grain and withdraw from the market supply According to the plan, agricultural credit companies provide farmers with storage fees and non recourse loans, while farmers guarantee grain, store grain in their own farms or commercial warehouses, and guarantee grain quality Once the farmers have put the grain in reserve, they must not be sold unless the market price exceeds the transfer price stipulated in the reserve plan Xgg 2 Demand is to expand demand Specific measures are as follows: xgg (1) expand overseas market and expand agricultural products export Before 1959, the United States was still an importer of agricultural products But in 1997, agricultural exports reached 56 billion US dollars The specific measures to expand the export of agricultural products in the United States are as follows: ① according to the agricultural trade development and assistance law passed by the United States Congress in 1954 (commonly known as public law 480, amended in 1966 and 1968, also known as the food for peace plan), export surplus agricultural products to developing countries by means of "preferential sales" and "gifts" ② Export subsidies shall be implemented to reduce the export price of agricultural products U.S wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton and other exports are subsidized by the government The food security act of 1985 stipulated that the subsidy of US $1 billion would be used to increase the export of American grain and regain the market share of the United States ③ Adopt foreign currency sales and barter trade, and provide export credit guarantee According to the first chapter of public law 480, "sale in foreign currency", the government has the right to discuss and implement agreements with "friendly countries" on the sale of agricultural products in foreign currency, or to transport agricultural products overseas for aid or barter trade According to this method, the United States shipped $1.5 billion of goods overseas in 1988 After the Asian financial crisis, some countries were short of foreign exchange The US Department of agriculture decided to provide us $1 billion credit guarantee to South Korea, Thailand and other six ASEAN countries to purchase US agricultural products ① We will support the establishment of industry groups and associations for different products and the development of world markets In 1953, the federal government set up the Export Bureau of agricultural products, whose most important work was to develop the market In order to achieve this goal, the Export Bureau of agricultural products cooperates with relevant industry groups and associations in a creative way and provides financial assistance to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of selling agricultural products by itself By 1980, more than 50 organizations and associations had cooperated with the Agricultural Products Export Bureau ⑤ By virtue of its comparative advantages in agriculture, it uses bilateral or multilateral trade negotiations to sign bilateral or multilateral trade agreements, and frequently puts pressure on other countries to reduce tariffs Xgg (2) expand the domestic market and vigorously develop high value-added industries such as agricultural products processing To expand domestic demand, the United States has tried many programs, such as food voucher program, special supplementary food program for women, infants and children, school breakfast and lunch program, direct food distribution program, etc In 1988, these programs cost $21.2 billion, because the income elasticity of food demand of low-income families is large, and all these programs help to increase the demand for food Agricultural products processing industry plays an important role in the American economy and creates many jobs The agricultural adjustment act of 1935 stipulated that 30% of customs revenue should be used to encourage the use of surplus agricultural products, develop processing industry and promote domestic consumption and export In 1996, the United States spent more than $500 billion on food consumption, of which only 24% was agricultural value, and 76% was added to agricultural products in processing, storage and transportation, wholesale and other service sectors The output value of American food industry accounts for 160% of its agricultural output value Xgg 3 In terms of price, the U.S government has long implemented the price support policy for agricultural products Due to the oversupply of agricultural products in most years, especially when the market demand shrinks, the problem becomes more prominent The price of agricultural products falls, which leads to the decrease of farmers' income, and has adverse consequences for the whole economy and society In order to overcome the blindness of market competition and ease the contradiction between supply and demand of agricultural products, the U.S government has intervened and adjusted agriculture since the 1930s, and its core is the price support policy of agricultural products The main means of agricultural product price support policy is to combine quantity management with financial subsidies The government has determined the target price based on the production cost for the main agricultural products, so as to ensure that farmers can obtain a relatively stable profit margin compared with other industries When the market price is lower than the target price, the government will subsidize the difference between the two However, the government's subsidy is conditional All farmers who enjoy the subsidy must participate in the government's land reduction plan and water and soil conservation plan The proportion of land reduction has different provisions in different periods In the feed and grain plan of 1961, it was stipulated that farmers should stop farming at least 20% of the total arable land area to get benefits Xgg (2) for the relative vulnerability of agriculture, the U.S government adopts supportive policies The role of the U.S agricultural production protection policy is aimed at the vast number of agricultural producers, and the scope of its role is in the field of agricultural production Its fundamental purpose is to enable agricultural producers to get rid of the threat to their basic interests caused by the weakness and risk of agriculture, and to ensure that agricultural producers can obtain the social average profit rate, so as to protect the enthusiasm of agricultural producers Its content mainly includes the following aspects: xgg 1, agricultural credit preference The main form is the so-called "non recourse loan", which is a kind of secured loan provided by the agricultural products credit company (CCC) of the Ministry of agriculture of the people's Republic of China The basic approach is that, in order to ensure the basic income level of agricultural producers, the government has formulated the support price (i.e loan rate) of each unit of agricultural products in advance At any time after the harvest of agricultural products, the producers can mortgage the agricultural products to the agricultural product credit companies according to the support price to obtain the loan After that, if the market price cannot reach the support price level, the credit company has no right to claim back the loan When the market price is higher than the support price, the farmer can sell the agricultural products on the market by himself, and then repay the principal and interest of the loan Generally speaking, the support price set by the government is equal to or slightly higher than the production cost of agricultural products, and the loan interest rate is far