Objective/Meaning  The further expansion of the import and export trade of agricultural products has driven the growth of the agricultural economy, which is of great significance for the improvement of agricultural production, the further optimization and upgrading of relevant industrial structures, and the decline of the incidence of rural poverty. Therefore, studying the impact of international trade in agricultural products on poverty reduction in China’s rural areas would help government formulate appropriate policies, as well as to provide a research foundation for consolidating the accomplishments of a moderately prosperous society and to aid in the country’s efforts to reduce rural poverty.

  Methods/Procedures  This research creates different models utilizing the rural per capita income and the urban-rural income gap as indicators to undertake an empirical analysis on the effect of international trade in agricultural goods on rural poverty in China, based on province panel data from 2007 to 2019.

  Results/Conclusions  The results shows that the import and export of agricultural products can help improve farmers’ income and alleviate absolute poverty in rural China, but it has also widened the income gap between urban and rural areas and aggravated the relative poverty in rural areas of China. Based on this, the following countermeasures were put forward, including establishing an early warning mechanism for the import of agricultural products and selectively import agricultural products, improving the export environment of agricultural products and strengthening the government’s investment in supporting agriculture, increasing investment in education and improveing farmers’ core competitiveness, optimizing the structure of financial support for agriculture and strengthening the supervision of financial support for agriculture, and building a new system of transportation facilities according to the local system.