An Empirical Research on Agricultural Trade between China and “The Belt and Road” Countries: Competitiveness and Complementarity

The Belt and Road Initiative provides excellent opportunities of developing agricultural products trade. This paper presents the overview and the prospect of the agricultural trade between China and the Belt and Road countries, and uses RCA and TCI index to empirically analyze trade competition and complementarity of agricultural products between China and the Belt and Road countries. Results show that trade competition and complementarity of agricultural products between China and the Belt and Road countries coexist, but its complementarity appears to be more remarkable. China and the Belt and Road countries should strengthen and diversify the trade cooperation on agricultural products on the basis of existing bilateral and multilateral mechanisms to achieve common development.