Study on the factor contents and structural changes of agricultural products trade of China

Abstract

This paper uses input-output table to calculate each factor’s consumption coefficient of agriculture and its industry segments, and on this basis, the paper applies HOV model to calculate the factor content of trade of China’s agricultural products and the sub-classified products from 1992 to 2012 around China’s entry into WTO. Then, the Laurence index and structure optimization index are employed to analyze the agricultural trade structure and its changes. At last, comparison and empirical analysis are made to analyze the agricultural trade status from the perspective of trade factor content and trade structure changes during ten years around China’s entry into WTO. The conclusions of this paper are as follows: China has imported a large quantity of agricultural products, but at the same time, China does have imported large quantities of agricultural resources; the accession to WTO obviously has influenced the agricultural trade of China; the trade factor content of agricultural products also reflects the agricultural resource endowment and comparative advantage pattern in China, but this pattern has been facing big challenges, and the agricultural trade structure needs to be optimized and upgraded urgently.