Evolution Of Agricultural Trade Patterns In China-ASEAN Free Trade Area

With the development of regional economic integration,China and ASEAN proposed to establish China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in order to expand bilateral economic and trade exchanges in 2001.After 10 years of construction,the bilateral economic and trade relations became closer in 2010.Agricultural trade,as the focus of bilateral regional cooperation,has made tremendous progress in the past 20 years.Since 2001,bilateral trade in agricultural products has increased rapidly,from $4.8 billion in 2001 to $27.1 billion in 2010,and reached $48.8 billion in 2017.Since 2004,China and ASEAN began to implement the early harvest plan of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area(CAFTA).The tariff of agricultural products has been reduced dramatically,and zero tariff has been applied to agricultural trade in 2006.At the same time,China’s agricultural trade deficit with ASEAN has been expanding year by year.Since 2001,there has been a deficit.And it reached 16 billion US dollars in 2017,and the imbalance of agricultural trade has become appeared.In order to promote the healthy and sustainable development of agricultural trade between bilateral countries,this thesis conducts in-depth research on agricultural trade in China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and it will play a great theoretical and practical role of exploring the development path and mode of agricultural trade between China and ASEAN.Firstly,this paper analyses the current situation and pattern of agricultural trade between China and ASEAN from three dimensions:overall scale,geographical direction of import and export,and commodity structure based on the trade data of UN Comtrade database.Secondly,the author analyses the advantages,disadvantages,opportunities and challenges of agricultural trade in China-ASEAN Free Trade Area by using the situation analysis method.Thirdly,the author innovatively uses social network analysis to construct the structure map of agricultural products trade network of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area combined with the advantages of social network analysis in describing the multilateral and multi-directional aspects of agricultural products trade network,what’s more,analyzing the evolution of the network pattern of agricultural products trade from the perspective of network density,centrality and cohesive subgroups.Finally,the author puts forward some policy suggestions,such as increasing the added value of agricultural products,adjusting the structure of agricultural trade,improving the infrastructure of agricultural trade,training agricultural trade talents,and promoting agricultural trade facilitation,in order to promote the development of agricultural trade between China and ASEAN.The author finds that:firstly,the trade volume of agricultural products in China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has increased rapidly since 2001,but the China’s trade deficit has been enlarged.Secondly,Malaysia,Thailand,Indonesia and Vietnam are the main trading partners of China’s agricultural products in the ASEAN region.The main agricultural products exported by ASEAN to China are mainly value-added agricultural products such as animal and vegetable oils and rubber,while the main agricultural products exported by China to ASEAN are primary agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits.Thirdly,the establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area promotes agricultural trade among member countries,and as well as raised China’s position in agricultural trade between bilateral countries,making China gradually become the core country in the agricultural trade network.