Some Support Policy Options for Cotton in China

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the economic arguments for and against raising the tariff on imports of cotton into China. Design/methodology/approach - The paper reviews first the possible arguments for raising the tariff, and particularly the possibility that such an increase in t...

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Main Author: Martin, W.
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5280
id okr-10986-5280
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-52802021-04-23T14:02:21Z Some Support Policy Options for Cotton in China Martin, W. Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the economic arguments for and against raising the tariff on imports of cotton into China. Design/methodology/approach - The paper reviews first the possible arguments for raising the tariff, and particularly the possibility that such an increase in tariffs would have a favorable distributional effect by redistributing from those involved in the production of textiles and clothing to the producers of cotton The core analysis of the paper examines the policies in place using descriptions of policies and interviews with policymakers It also assembles statistics designed to assess the export status of cotton, whether in raw or processed form Findings - The paper reviews the situation with respect to INTO commitments and confirms that such an increase, up to 40 percent. would be permitted under WTO rules The paper then examines other constraints on the effective use of such higher tariffs on cotton. Policies that are better than tariff increases in dealing with the serious problems of rural incomes are identified Research limitations/implications - The paper is unable to assess the distributional impacts of an increase in the tariff on cotton It raises a number of cautions about the issues that need to be confronted in making such an assessment Originality/value - The issue of raising the tariff on cotton has been a subject of intense debate in China and this paper is intended to provide an input into this debate The paper agrees that urgent action is clearly needed to mitigate the poverty problems in rural China, but concludes that a number of policy options appear likely to be more effective in dealing with these problems than protection of cotton 2012-03-30T07:32:07Z 2012-03-30T07:32:07Z 2009 Journal Article China Agricultural Economic Review 1756-137X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5280 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article China
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
geographic_facet China
relation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the economic arguments for and against raising the tariff on imports of cotton into China. Design/methodology/approach - The paper reviews first the possible arguments for raising the tariff, and particularly the possibility that such an increase in tariffs would have a favorable distributional effect by redistributing from those involved in the production of textiles and clothing to the producers of cotton The core analysis of the paper examines the policies in place using descriptions of policies and interviews with policymakers It also assembles statistics designed to assess the export status of cotton, whether in raw or processed form Findings - The paper reviews the situation with respect to INTO commitments and confirms that such an increase, up to 40 percent. would be permitted under WTO rules The paper then examines other constraints on the effective use of such higher tariffs on cotton. Policies that are better than tariff increases in dealing with the serious problems of rural incomes are identified Research limitations/implications - The paper is unable to assess the distributional impacts of an increase in the tariff on cotton It raises a number of cautions about the issues that need to be confronted in making such an assessment Originality/value - The issue of raising the tariff on cotton has been a subject of intense debate in China and this paper is intended to provide an input into this debate The paper agrees that urgent action is clearly needed to mitigate the poverty problems in rural China, but concludes that a number of policy options appear likely to be more effective in dealing with these problems than protection of cotton
format Journal Article
author Martin, W.
spellingShingle Martin, W.
Some Support Policy Options for Cotton in China
author_facet Martin, W.
author_sort Martin, W.
title Some Support Policy Options for Cotton in China
title_short Some Support Policy Options for Cotton in China
title_full Some Support Policy Options for Cotton in China
title_fullStr Some Support Policy Options for Cotton in China
title_full_unstemmed Some Support Policy Options for Cotton in China
title_sort some support policy options for cotton in china
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5280
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