ISSN: 2456–5474 RNI No.  UPBIL/2016/68367 VOL.- VII , ISSUE- XI December  - 2022
Innovation The Research Concept
A Comparative Advantage Study on Exports of India and Brazil, For Agricultural Products, Fuels and Mining Products and Manufactures Between 2010 and 2020.
Paper Id :  16940   Submission Date :  2022-11-19   Acceptance Date :  2022-11-28   Publication Date :  2022-12-06
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Justin John Stephen
Assistant Professor
Business Economics
The Maharaja Sayajirao University Of Baroda
Vadodara,Gujarat, India
Abstract
The framework for India's trade policy is unambiguous, open, and made up of WTO commitments. With the goal of removing import barriers, establishing import preferential policies, and creating institutions to carry out WTO obligations, trade policy changes started in July 1991 and are still ongoing. Due to the sheer number of trade policies that have been implemented in the past, an effort has been made to compare and evaluate their effects. Industries in India are at a competitive advantage. Information for the Indian trade industries was gathered using trade statistics from the WTO, UNCTACD, IBEF, and EXIM-India. For the study, the years 2000 through 2014 were considered. Additionally, the RCA, TSC, RSCA, and RC indices were used to analyse the data. Results of the research indicate To produce 1 million of Agricultural Products, by India, the opportunity cost would be 3.10 million Agricultural Products of Brazil. Whereas Brazil has the opportunity of only 0.32 on 1 million. Hence, Brazil has comparative advantage in agricultural products. To produce 1 million of Fuel and Mining Products, by India, the opportunity cost would be 1.31 million Fuel and Mining Products of Brazil. Whereas Brazil has the opportunity of only 0.76 on 1 million. Hence, Brazil has comparative advantage in agricultural products. To produce 1 million of Manufacture Products, by India, the opportunity cost would be 0.51 million Manufacture Products of Brazil. Whereas Brazil has the opportunity of 1.95 on 1 million. Hence, India has comparative advantage in Manufacture Product.
Keywords International Trade, Comparative Cost Advantage.
Introduction
A comparative advantage occurs when a country can produce a good or service at a lower opportunity cost than another country. The theory of comparative advantage is attributed to political economist David Ricardo, who wrote the book Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817). The study was carried out to study the comparative advantage between India and Brazil, for products: Agricultural Products, Fuel and Mining Products and Manufactures. The time of study was 2010 to 2020, and the statistics were drawn from the websites of UN, WTO, UNCTAD and Ministry of Commerce (India).
Objective of study
1. To evaluate the applicability of comparative cost advantage between India and Brazil. 2. To check the level of comparative advantage on exports of agriculture products.
Review of Literature

Utilizing the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Trade Specialization Co-efficient (TSC), Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantages (RSCA), and Revealed Competitive Advantages (RCA) index, it is possible to analyse the revealed comparative advantages and trade competitiveness of various industries and countries. The RCA, TSC, RSCA, and RC indexes can be used to analyse a country's comparative advantage in exports and imports. Another name for the RCA index is Balassa's (1965, 1977) index. The TSC index is often referred to as Lafay's index (1992). As Vollrath's index, RSCA and RC (1991). The following are some important studies from both Indian and foreign scholars that have been presented:

The revealed comparative advantage (RCA) in merchandise trade that India possesses was evaluated by Burange and Chaddha (2008). From 1996 until 2005, ten years. Their study assesses the comparative advantage framework in India and changes to the environment over the course of the investigation. The author discovered that India has a comparative advantage in the export of goods that require a lot of manpower, like textiles, as well as goods that require a lot of scale, such chemicals and iron and steel. Additionally, attempts were made to assess India's RCA in exports and imports of various items, which were divided into production-based categories using the ideas of Ricardo, Heckscher-Ohlin, product-cycle goods, and others. According to the study's findings, India has a competitive advantage when it comes to exporting Ricardo and HO goods. PC products, meanwhile, have not demonstrated any.

Ruma (2011) used the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and the comparative export performance (CEP) index to discuss India's comparative advantage in the trade of vegetables, fruits, and flowers in Asia, the EU, and North America as well as compared to other South East Asian countries. According to the author, India has a remarkable comparative advantage in the EU's fruit and vegetable markets, but a comparative disadvantage in the market for flowers. Indian horticulture will become more competitive on a worldwide scale as a result of additional recommended supply chains, improved access to services, and the development of favourable trading circumstances that will allow it to take use of its comparative advantage in various international markets.

Using the trade intensity index (TII) and revealed comparative advantages, Sarath and Sudarshan (2009) evaluated the trade structures between India and ASEAN nations like Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, the Philippines, and Thailand (RCA) Balassa (1965), Revealed Competitive Advantage (RC) Vollrath (1991), and others use the 1990–2007-time frame for their studies. Competitiveness of has been assessed in those areas where it has been seen. Crustaceans, whether in shell or not, and molluscs, whether in shell, are the two marine exports where India has a competitive advantage over the other major ASEAN nations. Oceanic crust incorporates items for marine export. The trade-off between India's greater commerce with ASEAN and their lower tariffs is not great.

In his study of the major trends in bilateral trade, Tyagi (2014) also looked at issues relating to the volume, scope, and comparative advantage of trade between China and India. The results shed insight on China and India's growing trade deficits and have policy ramifications for potential trade and economic cooperation between the two emerging nations. Comparative advantage indices show which nation has the edge in a certain commodity. This chance must be taken advantage of. Furthermore, it was claimed that from a policy standpoint, exporting more goods to more regions is crucial if India wants to grow its share of bilateral trade. The study's policy implications demonstrated that India and China may coexist without endangering one another's interests.

Using RCA Balassa's framework, Redding and Witt (2010) examined the connections between aspects of Chinese society, its business system, industry choice, and potential comparative advantages in Chinese capitalism (1965). In order to examine the possibility of China matching the patterns of comparative advantage in either of these nations, the author also contrasted the institutional underpinnings of key areas of comparative advantage in the United States and South Korea with institutional conditions in China. They also stated that China does not currently have the institutional underpinnings to replicate US comparative advantages and that it is doubtful that China will develop these foundations over the course of the next one to two decades. To develop comparative advantages akin to those of South Korea, China would appear to be better positioned.

The changes in the relative advantages of several industries for Japan and the USA between 1967 and 1983 were assessed by Balassa and Noland in 1989. Using Balassa's (1965) index and TSC, the RCA of several industries in both countries has been analysed (TSC). The indices are intended for 57 core items and 167 manufactured products. These items have often been divided into 20 categories of commodities (17 manufactured products and 3 primary product groups). According to the study's findings, Japan increased its comparative advantage in industries that require a lot of human capital, while the USA honed its expertise in industries that require a lot of natural resources. It was further noted that both nations have succeeded in boosting their comparative advantages in high-tech goods.

Karambakuwa and Mzumara (2013) made an effort to explain Swaziland's apparent comparative advantage. It was also studied whether Swaziland has a competitive advantage in the goods it exports to the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the rest of the world. According to the findings of their investigation, Swaziland enjoys a comparative advantage in 449 product lines since it has RCA1. With an RCA index of 3106, chemicals, woodpulp, sulphite, and unbleached conifers have the highest value. Swaziland has a comparative edge in the production of both manufactured and agricultural goods. The author also stated that by luring foreign direct investment through transnational firms,

Research conducted by Johansson (2007) on R&D Accessibility and Comparative Advantages in Quality Differentiated Goods demonstrated that human capital and R&D accessibility have a strong favourable impact on the comparative advantages in high-quality goods manufacturing in Swedish regions. As the presence of multinational corporations boosts the region's specialisation in high-quality segments and robust over four different definitions of above-average product qualities, further study by the author offers evidence of technology spillovers from overseas. Additionally, as quality level is taken into account, the magnitude of projected R&D accessibility coefficients marginally increase.

Modifications to the RCA index created by Vollarth (1991), including Relative Trade Advantage, the relative export advantage logarithm, and Revealed Competitiveness, were employed by Ferto and Hubbard (2002). Additionally, they examine the competitiveness of the Hungarian agricultural sector using the EU as a benchmark. For the period 1992 to 1998, they used four different measures, such as RCA, RC, RSCA, and TSC, using the 4-digit level of SITC classification. Their findings imply that the pattern of revealed comparative advantage has remained constant during the research period despite changes to Hungary's agricultural landscape.

The empirical relevance of the Hillman requirement for revealed comparative advantage is evaluated by Hinloopen and Marrewijk (2005) using a large data set of annual bilateral trade flows for 1,056 4-digit SITC sectors between 183 countries over the period 1970–1997. Their findings looked at the necessary and sufficient conditions for the correlation between pre-trade relative pricing and the disclosed comparative advantage as determined by the Balassa (1965) index. Additionally, because the dataset is fully represented, the authors' conclusions regarding the empirical applicability of this Hillman condition are offered as stylized facts. Additionally, by limiting empirical investigations to those that focus on comparative advantages, it has been demonstrated that those industries that satisfy the Hillman criterion have the added benefit of serving as a screening mechanism for observations that are based on comparative advantages.

Main Text

The country profile of India and Brazil are given below:

 

India

Brazil

Scale

Area

3287

8516

*1000 square kms

Population

1393.41

213.99

Millions

GDP(current price)

2751567

1809837

Millions USD

GDP(per capita)

2116

8755

USD

Source: UN Database

Following is the table showing total exports of India and Brazil between 2010 to 2020. Value in USD, current price in millions.

 Year

Brazil

India

2010

200 434

226 351

2011

253 666

302 905

2012

239 953

296 828

2013

232 544

314 848

2014

220 923

322 694

2015

186 782

267 951

2016

179 526

264 542

2017

214 988

299 241

2018

231 890

324 778

2019

221 127

324 340

2020

209 180

276 410

Source: UNCTAD

The aggregate export of Brazil is 23,91,013 million USD, average of 217364.8 million USD per year.
The aggregate export of India is 32,20,888 million USD, average of 292808 million USD per year.
For Brazil, on an average, 12.01% of GDP is contributed by exports.
For India, on an average, 10.64% of GDP is contributed by exports.
 Comparative Advantage Study:
Export of Agricultural Products, Fuels and Mining Products and Manufactures by Brazil between 2010 to 2020. (In USD Million)

Year

Total Merchandise

Agricultural Products

Fuels And Mining Products

Manufactures

2010

200434

68655

56242

71112

2011

253666

86443

77797

84092

2012

239953

86656

65619

81899

2013

232544

90842

58653

84820

2014

220923

88156

54908

74874

2015

186782

79988

36452

68986

2016

179526

76904

32758

64503

2017

214988

87792

46850

74393

2018

231890

92906

58914

74691

2019

221127

89086

61605

66400

2020

209180

93237

58658

52064

Export of Agricultural Products, Fuels and Mining Products and Manufactures by India between 2010 to 2020. (In USD Million)

Year

Total Merchandise

Agricultural Products

Fuels and Mining Products

Manufactures

2010

226351

23106

54710

138005

2011

302905

34491

68355

184251

2012

296828

42395

64348

180146

2013

314848

46954

79937

187899

2014

322694

42897

72392

198705

2015

267951

34643

40316

181637

2016

264542

33064

35929

186061

2017

299241

38833

47674

205024

2018

324778

38927

59987

223265

2019

324340

37371

55978

229445

2020

276410

38872

40591

195416

Source: WTO                                                                     

The following tables show the proportion ( % ) of different products to Total Merchandise Exports:                                                

Brazil

% Agricultural

% Fuels and Mining

% Manufactures

2010

34.25

28.06

35.48

2011

34.08

30.67

33.15

2012

36.11

27.35

34.13

2013

39.06

25.22

36.47

2014

39.90

24.85

33.89

2015

42.82

19.52

36.93

2016

42.84

18.25

35.93

2017

40.84

21.79

34.60

2018

40.06

25.41

32.21

2019

40.29

27.86

30.03

2020

44.57

28.04

24.89

India

year

% Agricultural Products

% Fuels and Mining Products

% Manufactures

2010

10.21

24.17

60.97

2011

11.39

22.57

60.83

2012

14.28

21.68

60.69

2013

14.91

25.39

59.68

2014

13.29

22.43

61.58

2015

12.93

15.05

67.79

2016

12.50

13.58

70.33

2017

12.98

15.93

68.51

2018

11.99

18.47

68.74

2019

11.52

17.26

70.74

2020

14.06

14.68

70.60

% = Individual Elements Exports / Total Merchandise Exports * 100

Conclusion
To produce 1 million of Agricultural Products, by India, the opportunity cost would be 3.10 million Agricultural Products of Brazil. Whereas Brazil has the opportunity of only 0.32 on 1 million. Hence, Brazil has comparative advantage in agricultural products. To produce 1 million of Fuel and Mining Products, by India, the opportunity cost would be 1.31 million Fuel and Mining Products of Brazil. Whereas Brazil has the opportunity of only 0.76 on 1 million. Hence, Brazil has comparative advantage in agricultural products. To produce 1 million of Manufacture Products, by India, the opportunity cost would be 0.51 million Manufacture Products of Brazil. Whereas Brazil has the opportunity of 1.95 on 1 million. Hence, India has comparative advantage in Manufacture Product.
References
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