The Impact of the WTO Agricultural Agreement on Developing Countries

Abstract: Agricultural insurance, as an agricultural risk management tool to disperse agricultural risks, compensate farmers' losses and safeguard agricultural production, has become an indispensable part of the agricultural security system in various countries. However, due to the high cost of agricultural insurance, many countries provide financial subsidies for agricultural insurance. This paper introduces the help of agricultural insurance subsidies to countries in World Trade Organization (WTO), summarizes the main features and inadequacies of relevant WTO rules, and analyzes the existing problems of agricultural insurance subsidies from four aspects based on the practice of American agricultural insurance subsidies. The main conclusions of this paper include: first, the rules of agricultural insurance subsidy are limited and the classification is not clear, which seriously harms the agricultural development of developing countries; second, income insurance and natural disaster insurance in premium subsidies are regarded as "green box" tools, which need to meet certain conditions, otherwise there is still the possibility of being regarded as "amber box" tools; third, the current WTO rules on agricultural insurance subsidies are more conducive to the development of developed countries, but the agricultural insurance subsidies in developing countries lag behind and are difficult to implement, and the rules on agricultural insurance subsidies urgently need to be improved. Fourth, the double standards of developed countries and developing countries have caused differences in the classification of agricultural insurance subsidies. Finally, the thesis puts forward some suggestions on the compliance development of China's agricultural insurance subsidies under the framework of WTO rules.