An Analysis Of The Trade Between China And ASEAN On Agricultural Products Since2003

China and ASEAN countries have taken great efforts in tariff elimination on agriculturalproducts in order to implement the establishment of CAFTA. The year2003is the starting pointof zero-tariff on agricultural products as the <Agreement between China and Thailand onAccelerated Tariff Elimination under the Early Harvest Programme of the FrameworkAgreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between China and ASEAN> was signed.Based on the historical progress of CAFTA, this essay focuses on the following threeindexes to describe the trade between China and ASEAN on Agricultural Products since2003:Value of foreign trade on agricultural products between China and ASEAN; China’s Import andexport countries on agricultural products；China’s product structure of import and export onagricultural products. Then this essay uses RRCA index to analyze the competitiveness andadvantages of China’s and ASEAN countries’ agricultural products. At the end of the easy, thewriter analyzes the economic and political factors in the trade of agricultural products betweenChina and ASEAN according to IPE theories.According to the analysis, there has been a rapid growth in the value of foreign trade onagricultural products between China and ASEAN since2003, but China is also experiencinggrowing trade deficits. The reason mainly lies in the lack of advantages of China’s agriculturalproducts, compared to the ASEAN agricultural countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailandand Vietnam. Therefore, China’s import from ASEAN on agricultural products is much morethan its export to ASEAN. China and ASEAN trade with each other according to theiradvantages on agricultural products.There is complementarity in China’s temperate agricultural products and ASEAN countries’tropic agricultural products. What’s more, as a fundamental part of comprehensive economycooperation between China-ASEAN, trade on agricultural products is helpful to boost trade inmanufacturing industry. This explains the economic driving force of zero-tariff policy onagricultural products in CAFTA. In the term of political driving force, trade on agriculturalproducts meets the balance-power strategy of ASEAN countries. And it’s also good for China’sgeopolitical safety and food safety. However, the free trade on agricultural products will havenegative influences on both China and ASEAN countries, on the consideration of this economicfactor, Chinese government and ASEAN countries’ governments protect their weak agriculturalproducts through some political ways.