China is home to one out of every five human beings, more than 1.2 billion people strong with a rapidly expanding middle class and an economy growing at 7 percent a year. There is no nation that offers a greater potential customer base for American businesses. But trade barriers of every kind have limited our access to the Chinese market and contributed mightily to the nation s record trade deficit. American farmers and ranchers, in particular, need to do more business with China. While the rest of the nation has enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, agriculture is facing its third consecutive year of low prices and economic sluggishness.
Agriculture is highly dependent on exports, more than twice as much as other sectors of the economy.
But last year, every man, woman and child in China took in less than a dollar s worth of American agricultural goods. Chinese membership in the WTO could help turn that around. Our farmers could take advantage of dramatically reduced Chinese tariffs on everything from frozen beef cuts to cherries and peaches. They could do business with private individuals in China, without the interference of a state-trading entity. And our farmers could compete on a level playing field, since China will abandon export subsidies and eliminate unjustified sanitary and phytosanitary barriers as conditions of WTO entry.