Ron Duncan

Ron Duncan is Professor Emeritus, Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University (ANU). During the period 2003 to 2007 he was Foundation Executive Director, Pacific Institute of Advanced Studies in Development and Governance, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the National Centre for Development Studies at ANU (9 years) and Director of the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management at ANU (now the Crawford School) for 2 years.

Ron’s career has also spanned work with the New South Wales Department of Agriculture, the Australian Government’s Industries Assistance Commission, and the World Bank (14 years).

Ron is Editor of the Asian-Pacific Economic Literature journal published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Ron is an economist with special interests in agricultural, trade, and competition policies, management of natural resources, and economic development in developing countries. His primary developing country interests are China and Vietnam and countries of the South Pacific.

In 2003, Ron was awarded a Centenary Medal for Services to Australian Society through Economics; and in 2006 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

Agriculture and Food Security in China »

What Effect WTO Accession and Regional Trade Arrangements?

Edited by: Chunlai Chen, Ron Duncan
Publication date: June 2008
China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has had profound consequences for the structure of its economy, and there will many more before the full benefits of an open trading regime will be realised. Agriculture and Food Security in China explains the background to China’s WTO accession and links accession to reforms beginning as far back as 1979. The book highlights China’s policymakers’ decision to move away from protectionism and gain self-sufficiency, and illustrates how China’s step away from direct participation in the agricultural sector to indirect regulatory involvement and liberalisation could encourage further economic growth. Yet not all economic growth is cost-free. Agriculture and Food Security in China explores the short-term impacts of WTO accession as well as the mid and long-term implications of greater market involvement at an economy-wide and regional level. Growing divides between coastal and inland regions—and differences in rural and urban growth—will require a better understanding of the consequences of greater market dependency. Agriculture and Food Security in China adds to the existing knowledge of China’s agricultural growth as well as the impacts and interrelationships between WTO accession and China’s participation in other regional free trade agreements.