China’s agricultural trade following its WTO accession - Agriculture and Food Security in China - page 325

then fell into negative territory in 2004 and 2005. In other words, since
2004 Chna's agrculture as a whole has lost ts comparatve advantage
to non agricultural activities. In fact, agriculture may well have not had
a comparatve advantage pror to 2002 but the removal of government
protection through the WTO accession has made this clear. Certainly,
ndvdual agrcultural ndustres and commodtes have a comparatve
advantage, as seen above. Also, the regional dimension of China's
agrcultural comparatve advantage s not examned here and comparatve
advantage could vary wdely throughout the country.
Figures 11.10 and 11.11 show in terms of commodity groups and factor
ntenstes where agrculture has comparatve advantage and where t does
not. Across commodity groups the RCA indices have been declining, except
for processed agricultural products. In fact, the comparative advantage of

Figure 11.9 China's revealed comparative advantage indices (NER) of all
agricultural products, 1992-2005

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0

-0.1

-0.2

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Year

Sources : Author's calculaton. Data from 1992 to 2004 are from Unted Natons Statstcs
Division, Commodity Trade Statistics Database , COMTRADE. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/
comtrade/default.aspx. Data for 2005 are from Chna General Admnstraton of Customs
(various issues, 2005). Zhongguo Haiguan Tongji Yuebao [China Customs Statistical
Monthly Report], Zhongguo Haiguan Chubanshe, Beijing.