China ASEAN Agricultural Competitiveness And Trade Complementarity

They are accounted for in 1996,China became a full dialogue partner of ASEAN.In 2003,China established a strategic partnership with ASEAN and took the lead in acceding to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia as an ASEAN dialogue partner.Since 2009,China has maintained its position as ASEAN’s number-one trading partner for 12 consecutive years.And in 2020,ASEAN leaped to become China’s number one trading partner,forming a close relationship since then,with China and ASEAN as each other’s number one trading partner.The full completion of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area(CAFTA)in January 2011 marks a further deepening of China’s trade cooperation with ASEAN.Both agricultural production and trade play an important role in the foreign trade activities of China and ASEAN.The establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement(RCEP)have brought trade relations between China and ASEAN even closer,and the promotion of the "Belt and Road" process has opened up unlimited possibilities for trade development between China and ASEAN.The purpose of this paper is to study the competitiveness and complementarity between China and ASEAN countries in agricultural trade and to investigate the practical and theoretical significance of these characteristics for China to optimize and upgrade its agricultural export structure and deepen China-ASEAN agricultural import and export trade.This paper first compares the trade structure,trade relations,and geographical distribution of trade between China and ASEAN.By analyzing the agricultural exports of China and ASEAN countries,it is found that the scale of trade between the two is growing year by year.Especially with the development of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area,trade cooperation between China and ASEAN countries has become closer.However,there is a degree of competition in the trade of agricultural products between China and ASEAN countries in terms of trade types as well as trade markets.However,there are other areas where China and ASEAN countries complement each other.A comparison of the trade structures of China and ASEAN countries shows that there are significant differences between the structure of China’s foreign agricultural exports and that of ASEAN countries’ foreign agricultural exports.For example,the main types of agricultural products exported by China are fruits,vegetables and tea,while the main types of agricultural products exported by ASEAN countries are aquatic products,coconuts,and palm oil.The trade relationship between the two shows complementarity.And the complementarity between China and ASEAN can be distinguished into strong complementarity,stronger complementarity and weak complementarity by the results of the trade complementarity index.By comparing the trade structures of China and ASEAN countries,this paper also finds that China and ASEAN countries are competitive in some agricultural product categories.Secondly,this paper measures the realistic comparative advantage index and trade complementarity index of China and ASEAN and each ASEAN country for 24 categories of agricultural products from 2011 to 2021.The results of the calculation reveal that China’s agricultural exports are less competitive and Indonesia,the Philippines,and Thailand are more competitive.As well as the conclusion that some agricultural products from China and Indonesia,the Philippines,and Thailand are more complementary.The analysis of the RCA index and TCI index of China,ASEAN and ASEAN countries found that China’s agricultural exports to ASEAN are more competitive than complementary in terms of the number of strongly competitive categories and strongly complementary categories alone.Based on the establishment of the China-ASEAN FTA,the entry into force of the RCEP and the promotion of the Belt and Road,this paper examines the competitive and complementary characteristics of China-ASEAN trade and puts forward relevant recommendations.It is expected to provide some theoretical support for deepening China-ASEAN trade relations.