The Chinese government unveiled 18.3 million tons of tariff quotas
Sunday for imported grains, including corn, rice and wheat, for
this year.
The quotas were set during Beijing's negotiations with the World
Trade Organization (WTO) members, according to Monday's China
Daily report.
It
is the first time the government has formally made public import
quotas, applicant qualifications and allocation principles since
China became a WTO member in the
second half of last year, the newspaper said.
China plans to import 8.468 million tons of wheat this year from
its trade partners and 90 percent of the quota belongs to
state-owned foreign trade companies.
For corn, the import quota is 5.85 million tons and 68 percent of
the amount will be given to state-owned applicants.
The State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), authorized to set
tariff quotas for major agricultural imports, also unveiled quotas
for other key products including cotton, palm oil, rapeseed oil,
rice, woolen yarn, soya-bean oil, sugar, wheat and wool, China
Daily reported.
Early this month, the SDPC unveiled a regulation on tariff quotas
of agricultural imports after publishing the drafts of the rule
last November to determine public opinion.
Under the new rules, drawn up by the SDPC, the country's imports of
10 key agricultural products will be decided in accordance with
both the demands of the Chinese market and the tariff quotas
promised by Beijing during negotiations with the WTO.
(Xinhua News
Agency February 11, 2002)