By Zhou Qunli, Research Team on “Strategic Adjustments in Agriculture in the Context of High-level Opening-up”, Research Department of Rural Economy, DRC

Research Report, No. 117, 2020 (Total 5861) 2020-5-20

Abstract: In the course of industrialization, countries with poorer resource endowments will suffer from increased costs in labor and land for farming, and lose agricultural comparative advantages. With regard to these changes, different countries take different countermeasures due to different awareness, and witness different effects. As China’s agricultural comparative advantages are tangibly phasing out, it is necessary for China to draw on the experience of Britain and Germany with early industrialization. Both countries had adopted trade protection measures for agriculture during initial industrialization. With the advancement of industrialization, the negative impacts induced by agricultural protection loomed up, so they had to take an opening up stance for agricultural growth. As a result, they faced the impact of cheap imported agro-products, and in face of that, Britain and Germany adopted different measures. Both countries’ adjustments to their agricultural development strategies during initial industrialization suggest that the only way out for China’s agriculture development is to enhance competitiveness, design agricultural trade policies based on a forward-looking approach and future market performance, and properly deal with the challenges posed by imported agro-products in a bid to guard national food security.

Keywords: agricultural opening-up, food security, Britain, Germany