The Changing Pattern of China's Agricultural Trade

Economic reforms and rapid economic growth in the past twenty years have encouraged increased imports of foreign agricultural products into China. While becoming a potential market for agri-food exporters, China has also grown into a major competitor in international agri-food markets, particularly in Asia. As China is likely to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the foreseeable future, an accurate account of China’s agricultural trade pattern is particularly relevant and timely. The issue of whether or not China’s agricultural trade in the reform era has increasingly reflected its resource endowments is investigated in this paper using Statistics Canada trade data. The advantage of using Statistics Canada trade data is that Hong Kong export statistics are used to approximate China’s actual imports from Hong Kong. This is done because official import data from China’s customs statistics don’t include agricultural products that enter China through unofficial channels, including extensive re-exports to China from Hong Kong.