COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE AND AUSTRALIA-CHINA BILATERAL TRADE

Bilateral trade between Australia and China has expanded in recent years. This paper examines the determinants of bilateral trade at the two-digit commodity level using a modified gravity model with explicitly specified revealed comparative advantage incorporated. This methodology allows us to explore how the relative comparative advantage of Australia and China to the world, mirroring their individual pattern of factor endowments, affects the pattern of trade between the two countries and to identify whether there exists a kind of complimentarity international specialisation between the two countries against the backdrop of each country's booming trade with the rest of the world. Key commodities such as agricultural products, iron ore, petroleum, textiles and clothing, and machinery goods are considered to estimate net welfare in terms of added value deriving from bilateral trade. The findings have policy implications for forging future trade and economic cooperation between Australia and China.