Research On The Efficiency And Influencing Factors Of Agricultural Products Trade Between China And RCEP Member States

Agriculture is a fundamental industry in China’s national economy,and agricultural product trade is an important link in its development.In recent years,China has become the world’s largest importer of agricultural products and the third largest exporter of agricultural products,with a normalized trade deficit.The formal signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in 2020 marked the birth of the world’s largest free trade zone.The proportion of agricultural products within the free trade zone that promise to achieve zero tariffs for all members has generally reached 90%,and the facilitation as well as openness of China’s agricultural trade market has improved further,promoting the formation of a comprehensive opening pattern.However,with China’s agricultural trade deficit showing an increasing trend year by year,the new breakthroughs brought by RCEP in the field of agricultural openness will undoubtedly have an important impact on China’s agricultural trade.What is the current situation of China’s agricultural product import and export trade with RCEP member countries,whether the trade potential at the national and product levels is fully exploited,and whether there is room for trade growth and development? Studying these issues will deepen China’s competitive advantage in international trade of agricultural products and promote the deepening development of bilateral agricultural product trade.Based on this,the article first defines agricultural products according to the International Convention on the Harmonized System of Commodity Names and Coding,which includes four categories and a total of 24 chapters,then uses the data of China’s import and export of agricultural products to the member countries of RCEP from 2011 to 2021,after a comprehensive analysis of the overall trade scale,country structure,and product structure,uses the stochastic frontier gravity model to calculate the trade potential and trade efficiency of agricultural products between China and the member countries of RCEP.The research results show that:(1)In2011-2021,China’s agricultural product import and export trade volume to RCEP countries showed an overall upward trend,and the trade deficit in 2018 was normalized,the distribution of import countries is scattered and balanced,and the export develops from biased towards Japan to uniform distribution.Animal,vegetable,or microbial oils,fats,and their decomposition products;Refined edible oil;Animal and vegetable waxes is China’s main import product(2)China and other RCEP member countries’ GDP,the population size of member countries、Monetary freedom and other factors have a significant positive impact on agricultural trade.The increase of China’s population size will reduce trade efficiency;Business freedom and urbanization level are significantly negative.(3)The heterogeneity of countries at the two levels of trade potential and growth development space is relatively obvious.We should strengthen trade exchanges with Thailand,Vietnam,the Philippines and other countries with large trade potential and growth development space,and China’s trade efficiency can be improved more effectively.Finally,on the basis of the current situation and empirical results,it is believed that the efficiency of agricultural trade between China and RCEP member countries can be improved by making full use of the RCEP dividend,implementing tariff concessions,reducing trade barriers,improving product quality,deepening industrial chain construction,and differentiated development based on national heterogeneity.