Objective:
The objective of this Protocol is to develop China-US Agricultural Flagship Projects to facilitate the United States and China as leaders and innovators in agricultural research, offering solutions to the severe global challenges of food security and sustainable development, facilitating development of genetic resources of crops and effective utilization of water resources by teams of scientists and engineers from the United States and China, and serving as a clearinghouse to help researchers in each Party’s country cooperate in mutually beneficial areas.

Approach:
This Protocol is subject to and governed by the S&T Agreement. This Protocol is intended to complement, and not duplicate, cooperation under the Protocol on Cooperation in Agriculture Science and Technology that was originally implemented by USDA and MOST in December, 2002. This will be managed by an annual Joint Working Group co-chaired at a ministerial (or sub-ministerial) level with alternating hosts between USDA and MOST. Subsequent research activities can be added to this agreement as an annex to this agreement by written approval of both parties.