International Conference on Agricultural Trade Policy 2015 held in Beijing
On October 19, the Agricultural Trade Promotion Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) jointly held the “2015 International Conference on Agricultural Trade Policy” in Beijing. Focusing on the question of “how to safeguard food security under open conditions” and taking “agricultural trade and food security” as its theme, the conference held in-depth discussions on four topics: the challenges facing food security, the potential impact of trade on food security, sustainable growth of agricultural productivity and food security, and the related policy implications.
More than a dozen Chinese and foreign experts and scholars from the Development Research Center of the State Council, the Ministry of Agriculture, Renmin University of China, Nanjing Agricultural University, the OECD, ICTSD and FAO spoke and held discussions at the conference around the above topics. Experts from the OECD, ICTSD and FAO gave reports on issues such as developing agricultural product markets and food security, and ensuring the sustainable development of global agricultural product markets.
Representatives from the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Directorate for Trade and Agriculture of the OECD, and the Communications and Strategy Division of ICTSD delivered speeches at the opening ceremony respectively. The conference stressed that, under open conditions, ensuring China's food security requires attention to four issues: “how to ensure appropriate imports”, “how to improve agricultural competitiveness and ease the pressure of the price gap between domestic and foreign agricultural products”, “how to correctly view China's domestic support policies and the direction of their adjustment”, and “how to build an open policy system”.
Officials, experts and scholars from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration of Grain, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University and Nanjing Agricultural University, as well as agricultural diplomats from the embassies of some countries in China and managers of well-known Chinese and foreign agricultural companies and industry associations, more than 100 representatives in total, also attended the conference.