(外文翻译)中国主要农产品的显性比较优势及竞争力分析

Revealed comparative advantage and competitiveness of China’sagricultural productsZhan JingEconomy and Management Collage, Nanhua University, Hengyang,4210100, China中国主要农产品的显性比较优势及竞争力分析詹晶（南华大学经济管理学院，湖南衡阳，421001）译文正文：中国主要农产品的显性比较优势及竞争力分析詹晶（南华大学经济管理学院，湖南衡阳，421001）摘要：本文在大量数据的基础上测算了1980－2003年期间中国部分农产品的显性比较优势指数及其比较竞争力。

测算结果表明中国在可食用蔬菜、茶叶等农产品上仍然具有比较优势，但是24 年来中国农产品的显性比较优势指数呈现下降趋势。

关键词：农产品; 国际贸易; 显性比较优势(RCA); 竞争力中国的农产品出口，为增加外汇、就业机会及城乡居民收入做出了重大贡献。

2003年农产品贸易余额为2.5美元亿美元，占外贸顺差总额的9.8％。

诚（2003）报道，由农产品出口可直接和间接创造19.88个就业机会。

巴拉萨（1965）在全球层面上首次提出了中国农产品的相对竞争力可以通过显示性比较优势分析（RCA），这对意识到中国农产品的竞争地位有作用的。

显示性比较优势的公式有某些类型的测量方法可以判定一个产业的竞争力，其中RCA指数就是重要的一个，RCA的概念基于的是传统的贸易理论。

原来的RCA指数，由巴拉萨（1965），可以被定义为：RCA= (X ij /X it) / (X nj / X nt)其中x表示出口,i代表一个国家，j是一种商品，x ij表示i国用来出口商品j。

t代表一组商品和n代表一组国家。

因此,该方程分析一个国家的出口占世界出口的商品与该国的出口总额占世界出口总额。

如果i国家j商品的世界出口份额，占i国的所有产品的世界出口份额越大，RCA将越大于1，这表明一个国家在生产特定商品上有一个“显性”比较优势。

RCA是基于观察贸易模式。

RCA价值的增加意味着在一国一种商品的竞争力增加。

这种测量是很容易，它被广泛采用。

但在现实中，可以观察到的贸易格局被政策和干预扭曲，因此可能会歪曲潜在的比较优势。

这在农业部门尤其如此，政府的干预是司空见惯的，这一点由巴拉萨（1965）指出。

进口限制的程度，出口补贴和其他的保护政策可能会扭曲的显示性比较优势指数正在成为关注的问题。

作为衡量政府对农业的支持，经济合作与发展组织（1999）按农业与产业估计总支持等值（TSEs）。

这是很自然的认为TSEs越高，产业越会得到支持。

显而易见的是，在联合国的支持水平最高，随后是美国，最低的是中国。

作为世界贸易组织的承诺，所有成员国的政府干预预期减弱。

然而，在一些考虑的时期农业是不可能是完全摆脱政府干预。

福利收益源于农业贸易自由化,例如，泰尔斯和安德森(1988和1992)和经合组织(1995年),这意味着农业政策必须影响贸易流量(即容量)和可能对贸易模式(即方向)。

自由是优于各种程度的贸易限制。

沃华夫和VO（1990）发现出口业绩更受经济基本面影响而不是政府干预,而进口行为正好相反。

沃华夫（1989）指出，政府的干预和竞争力往往是负相关的。

这表明，那些露出了比较优势的产品群可以变得更具竞争力，如果市场变得更加开放。

RCA仍然潜在的比较优势和竞争优势提供了有益的指导，虽然指数是毋庸置疑的。

中国主要农产品的显性比较优势上述所定义的RCA指数计算了1980至2003年期间中国农产品出口与其余的世界对比。

数据来源中国国家统计局(国家统计局)。

所有样品的产品类别和贸易覆盖17流过24期。

年度RCA指数计算这个四位数的水平,但在三位的水平。

表1中国主要农产品的RCA指数，1980-2003.以下两个领域的RCA值，可以定义为：高RCA>2，低2> RCA> 1。

此外，如果RCA 值小于1时，表示一个国家发现比较劣势（RCD）在一个特定的商品。

因此，一些观察，可以从表1中。

1. 1980年，中国显示性比较优势在17个产品有7种。

他们是茶叶，大米，猪肉制品，猪肉，水果，鸡肉和肉类。

对于其他产品中国是显性比较劣势。

2003年茶叶，大米，鸡肉和猪肉产品继续保持其竞争地位。

此外，蔬菜和蘑菇获得了竞争力。

2. 在所有产品类的显性比较优势中，五种制品的比较优势高，其中两种在1980年优势低，而在2003年只有其中两个制品高。

3. 鸡肉，猪肉和茶叶一直保持他们的竞争力，在整个24年期间。

4. 肉、猪肉和水果是产品类别在1980年用RCA衡量，但是在2003年用RCD。

然而,蔬菜产品和蘑菇的产品类别在1980年用RCD衡量，但是在2003年用RCA。

这两类都是加工产品。

5. 在24年期间，4个农产品类别在中国经历了一个改进：蘑菇和蔬菜产品从“RCD”改为“RCA”，棉花和谷物的RCA值也有所增加，但他们仍然在RCD位置。

6. 对于大多数类型的农业产品,中国的竞争力减弱了。

17产品类别中有12种的RCA 价值经历了下降。

结论与展望上述研究结果表明，在中国显性比较优势的农产品大部分是劳动密集型产品。

蔬菜产品的上升是令人鼓舞的，部分原因在于中国在农业的劳动力成本低。

比较优势指数的下降水平意味着在中国的农业产品中的竞争力正在减弱，可能会导致以下原因。

在外部，许多经济一体化的组织已建立和合并其成员国，从而形成固体的区域贸易封锁的经济体。

在内部，许多农产品的质量不能达到国际标准；大多数农业企业是技术创新中的弱者。

更重要的是，工业协会和中介机构没有使其潜能充分发挥在推进农产品加工业，并维护市场秩序。

为加强中国的农业产品竞争力，进一步应努力通过发展农业龙头企业推进农业产业化推进。

国内主要农业生产者是个体农民家庭。

农业企业只有在发展的最初阶段。

当农民被企业和/或合作组织在家庭责任合同制度的基础上组织进行工业化管理，他们将会得到更全面的服务，并将更好地分配农业的资源。

在此期间，企业应高度意识到市场的需求和充分利用信息技术和现代市场供给和需求的最新趋势与时并进，并更好地组织其营销的销售方法。

这些企业应该更多的资金注入R&D程序、技术传播和品牌营销。

规范化的管理应应用在生产、加工、包装、运输、销售、卫生检疫的农业产品，以满足国际质量认证的要求。

此外，中国政府应考虑设立特别学校对农民的教育和培训，提高其素质和竞争力，促进农业和农村经济的长期增长。

因此，工业化可以推进农业产品的RCA关于该国的农业结构的战略性调整和产业的国际市场竞争力。

外文原文Revealed comparative advantage and competitiveness of China’sagricultural productsAbstract: This paper deals with the competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products, base on the index of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) using lots of data for the period of 1980 to 2003. The index is useful in identifying the demarcation between comparative advantage and comparative disadvantage. The research indicates that some agro-products in China such as edible vegetables and tea have a comparative advantage, but the RCA values have been declining over the 24-year period, which has vast impacts on future reform in China’s agricultural structure.Keywords:agricultural product, export, revealed comparative advantage (RCA), competitiveness.China’s exports of agricultural products have made significant contributions to increasing foreign exchange, job opportunities and rural income. In 2003 the agricultural trade balance was US$2.5 billion, which accounted for 9.8 per cent of total foreign trade surplus. Cheng (2003) reported that 19.88 job opportunities can be created directly and indirectly by exports of agricultural products.T he relative competitiveness of China’s agricultural products can be analyzed by means of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) first proposed by Balassa (1965) at the global level, which is useful to be aware of the competitive position of China’s agricultural products. Formulation of revealed comparative advantageThere are some kinds of measurement in determining the competitiveness of an industry, among which RCA index is an important one and the concept of RCA is grounded on conventional trade theory. The original RCA index, formulated by Balassa (1965), can be defined as:RCA= (X ij /X it) / (X nj / X nt)Where x represents exports, i is a country, j is a commodity, X ij is exports by country i in commodity j. t is a set of commodities and n is a set of countries. Therefore, this equation analyses a country’s export share of world export of a commodity with the country’s total export share of world total exports. If country i’s share of world exports of commodity j isgreater th at country i’s share of world exports of all goods, the RCA will be greater than 1, which suggests that a country has a “revealed” comparative advantage in the production of that particular commodity.RCA is based on observed trade patterns. An increasing in the value of RCA means an increasing in a country’s competitiveness in a commodity. This kind of measurement is so easy that it is widely adopted. But in reality, observed trade patterns can be distorted by policies and interventions and therefore may misrepresent underlying comparative advantage. This is especially true of the agricultural sector, where government interference is commonplace, a point noted by Balassa (1965). The extent to which import restriction, export subsidies and other protection policies might distort index of revealed comparative advantage is becoming a concern.As a measure of government support to agriculture, the OECD (1999) estimates total support equivalents (TSEs) by country and industry. It is natural to think that the higher the TSEs is, the more support the industry gets. It is evident that the level of support was highest in the UN, then in the USA, and lowest in China. As a commitment to the World Trade Organization, government intervention in all member countries is expected to diminish. Nevertheless, agriculture is unlikely to be completely free of government intervention for some considerate time.The welfare gains result from agricultural trade liberalization, e.g. Tyers and Anderson (1988 and 1992) and OECD (1995), which implies that agricultural policies must have an impact on trade flow (i.e. volume) and possibly on trade patterns (i.e. direction ). The free is superior to various degree of trade restriction. V ollrath and V o (1990) found export performance to be more affected by economic fundamentals than by government intervention, whereas the reverse applied to import behavior.V ollrath (1989) noted that government intervention and competitiveness tend to be inversely related. This suggests that those product groups revealing a comparative advantage could become even more competitive if markets were to become more open. The RCA still provide a useful guide to underlying comparative and competitive advantage, although the index is not beyond doubt.Revealed comparative advantage in main agricultural products of ChinaThe RCA index as defined above is computed for China’s agricultural products for export over the period 1980-2003, with those of the rest of the world as contrast. The data are supplied by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China. The all samples cover 17 productcategories and trade flows over the 24-year period. Annual RCA index is calculated at the four-digit level, but reported at the three-digit level.Source: Authors’ calculations based on NBS’s data at four-digit levelThe following two fields of RCA value can be defined: high for RCA＞2, low for 2＞RCA＞1. In addition, if the RCA value＜1, it denotes that a country has revealed comparative disadvantage (RCD) in a particular commodity. Thus, several observations can be made from Table 1.1. In 1980 China had the revealed comparative advantage for 7 of 17 product groups. They were tea, rice, pork products, pork, fruits, chicken and meat. For the others China had the revealed comparative disadvantage. In 2003 tea, rice, chicken and pork products maintained their competitive position. Moreover, vegetable products and mushroom gained competitiveness.2. Among all product groups with revealed comparative advantage, five of them ware high, two of them low in 1980; while in 2003 only two of them ware high.3. Chicken, pork and tea had maintained their competitiveness during the whole 24-year period.4. Meat, pork and fruits were the product groups with a RCA in 1980 but a RCD in 2003. However, vegetable products and mushroom were the product categories with a RCD in 1980 but with a RCA in 2003. These two categories were all processed products.5. During the 24-year period, four agricultural product groups in China experienced animprovement: mushroom and vegetable products improved from “RCD” to “RCA”; the RCA value of cotton and cereals also had increased, although they were still in RCD position.6. For most kinds of agricultural products, China’s competitiveness had weakened. The RCA value of 12 of 17 product groups experienced a fall.Conclusion and prospectsT he above findings suggest that most of the agricultural products with revealed comparative advantage in China are labor-intensive products. The rise in vegetable products is encouraging partly because of China’s low cost labor in agriculture.The decreasing level of comparative advantage index means that the competitiveness in China’s agricultural products is weakening which would have resulted from the following reasons. Externally, many economic integrated organizations have been established and merged the economies of their member states, thus forming a solid regional trading blockage. Internally, the quality of many agricultural products can’t come up to international standards; most agro enterprises are weak in technological innovation. What’s more, industrial association and intermediary agencies have not brought their potentialities into full play in advancing the agricultural processing industry and maintaining market order.To strengthen China’s agricultural products competitiveness, further efforts should be made to push agricultural industrialization forward by developing leading agricultural enterprises. The domestic major agricultural producers are individual farmer households. Agricultural enterprises are only in the initial stage of development.When farmers are organized by enterprises and /or co-operative organizations to carry out industrialized management on the basis of the household responsibility contract system, they will get more comprehensive services, and agricultural resources will be better allocated.In the meantime, the enterprises should be highly conscious of market demands and make full use of information technology and modern sales methods to keep abreast with the latest supply and demand trends in the market and to better organize their marketing.These enterprises should also pump more funds into R&D programs, technology spreading and brand marketing. Standardized management should be applied in producing, processing, packaging, transporting, selling and hygienic quarantining of agricultural products to meet the requirement of international quality certification.In addition, the government of China should consider establishing special schools for farmers’ education and training to raise their qualities and competitiveness, boosting th e long-term growth of agriculture and rural economy.Accordingly, industrialization can advance the strategic adjustment of the country’s agricultural structure with reference to the RCA of agricultural products and will sharpen thecompetitive edge of the industry in the international market.。