A Study’ Of Agricultural Intra-Industry Trade Between China And China’s Major Trading Partners

In current economic activities, intra-industry trade has become an important form of international trade and it is affecting more and more countries and regions. It grows with the world economy simultaneously. In recent years, China’s national economy and agricultural trade have been growing rapidly and unceasingly, the level of trade liberalization has improved generally after joining the WTO. So it’s very timely and necessary to study the situation of China’s agricultural intra-industry trade with major trading partners comprehensively and systematically. Particularly, in the current China’s agricultural trade as a whole no longer has a comparative advantage, how to conform to the development trend of intra-industry trade and form complement with inter-industry trade in order to enhance the export competitiveness of agricultural products, this is a very important issue.In view of this, this paper makes an empirical research on the status of intra-industry trade of various agricultural products and overall agricultural products, the status of intra-industry trade between China and major trading partners. The results show that:(1)1996-2008, the average index of China’s overall agricultural intra-industry trade was0.426which was a lower level of intra-industry trade indicating that China’s agricultural inter-industry trade was still dominant. In time sequence, the index of each year had some volatility and did not show a continuous upward trend with the growth of China’s national economy and agricultural trade. And it had been decreasing in the past two years. The average index of China’s overall agricultural horizontal intra-industry trade was0.066while the average index of China’s overall agricultural vertical intra-industry trade was0.360. This indicated that vertical inter-industry trade was dominant in China’s agricultural trade.1996-2008, the annual average value of marginal intra-industry trade index was0.24which indicated that the changes in the amount of trade in China’s agricultural products were mainly caused by inter-industry trade.(2) The measurement results of intra-industry trade index between China and major trading partners show:1996-2008, the annual average value of agricultural intra-industry trade index between China and12developed countries was0.358, and the annual average value of agricultural intra-industry trade index between China and12developing countries was0.447. Both of them were the lower levels of intra-industry trade. This indicated that agricultural inter-industry trade was dominant between China and major trading partners. The difference was that the level of agricultural intra-industry trade was higher between China and12developing countries compared with12developed countries. The intra-industry trade index was greater than0.5in1998,1999,2000and2002which was the higher level of intra-industry trade. In time sequence, the intra-industry trade index of the overall agricultural products between China and developed countries had shown an upward trend in the fluctuations, the intra-industry trade index of the overall agricultural products between China and developing countries had shown a downward trend in the fluctuations. Before2004, the overall level of agricultural intra-industry trade between China and developing countries was higher than that between China and developed countries. After2004, the overall level of agricultural intra-industry trade between China and developed countries was higher than that between China and developing countries. And the gap had expanded in the past two years.(3) The measurement results of intra-industry trade type between China and major trading partners show: Overall, the agricultural intra-industry trade between China and developed countries was vertical and of the relatively higher level which indicated that China’s agricultural products exporting to developed countries had good quality and strong competitiveness. The agricultural intra-industry trade between China and developing countries was horizontal and of the relatively lower level which indicated that China’s agricultural products exporting to developing countries had lower level on the extent of specification and diversification.Based on the above results, the paper discusses the ways of enhancing the level of China’s agricultural intra-industry trade. Raise the quality of agricultural products with relatively lower level of vertical intra-industry trade. These products are grain, grain flour, starch or milk products and miscellaneous food, etc. At the same time, increase the amount of specifications and varieties of agricultural products with relatively lower level of horizontal intra-industry trade. These products are dairy, egg, natural honey and other edible animal products, etc. In addition, emphasize the quality of agricultural products which are exported to developed countries, and increase the amount of specifications and varieties of agricultural products which are exported to developing countries. These measures will maintain the upward trend of the agricultural intra-industry trade between China and developed countries and ameliorate the declining trend of the agricultural intra-industry trade between China and developing countries.