A Study On The Trade Relations And Cooperative Potentials Of Agricultural Products Between China And India

Since 1990s, trade volume of agricultural products between China and India has increased rapidly with the improvement of bilateral economic and trade ties. However, the current Sino-India bilateral agricultural products trade is characterized by relatively small volume compared with their respective total trade volume of agricultural products, singularity in species composition and remarkable trade fluctuations, showing there exists potentials for Sino-India agricultural products trade. For China's agricultural products export, it is very important to explore those markets that haven't been fully developed or not yet been developed; while for India, China, as a large agricultural products consuming nation, presents broad market potentials. Both countries have now granted to each other a certain degree of tariff reduction on certain sorts of agricultural products under the frame of Bangkok Agreement, which, due to a small range of agricultural products specified in the frame, only facilitates bilateral agricultural products trade in a limited degree. In this sense, China and India can be able to upgrade bilateral trade level of agricultural products by strengthening trade cooperation. Therefore, the necessity of intensifying agricultural cooperation and exploring bilateral agricultural products trade potentials cannot be overlooked.Based on an analysis of comparative advantage of agricultural products for both China and India, this paper measures the Sino-India trade relations of agricultural products and locates products that possess either competitive or compatible nature between the two countries, with a focus on exploring whether there exists cooperative foundations for them. It then studies specific agricultural products that are provided with large room for trade exploration, and further discusses the magnitude of agricultural products trade potentials between China and India. Policy suggestions are therefore made based on the results of the research.The study shows that export competition of the overall agricultural products between China and India is not remarkable, while the upward trend of bilateral trade complementarity index reveals an increase in trade compatibility. As for specific products, spices and seafood exhibit the keenest export competition of all Sino-India competing products, while over 20 products possess the nature of either bilateral inter-industry or...