Chinese academics said Friday that the mainland government has neglected farmers’ interests in the country’s rush for World Trade Organization membership, although they have no detailed proposals to improve the farmers’ lot.
“Chinese farmers suffered most after China joined the WTO,” Professor Tang Renwu of the School of Management of Beijing Normal University told a forum organized by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, the University of Hong Kong and Oxfam Group.
Tang said it will take at least five years before the problems that rural dwellers face begin to be dealt with.
“Agriculture in China is always slow to respond to regulation changes,” Tang said.
