China and Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement countries: Estimation of the virtual water trade of agricultural products

Abstract

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is one of the most important multilateral free trade and investment agreements in recent years. Although as a major economic power in the Asia-Pacific region, China has yet to join the TPPA. Existing research on China and TPPA countries has mainly been conducted from political and economic perspectives. This paper first reports the relationship between China and TPPA countries from the perspective of virtual water trade of agricultural products and completes a diachronic analysis from 2001 to 2014. The results indicate that China was in virtual water trade surplus with TPPA countries for agricultural products and that the surplus had an expansion trend. The exported virtual water totalled 7.47 billion m3/y, whereas 63.45 billion m3/y was embedded in imported products. Malaysia was the biggest virtual water surplus partner of China and Japan was the biggest virtual water deficit partner. Additionally, the proportion of the grey water footprint of agricultural products that China exported to TPPA countries was about five times higher than that imported from TPPA countries. It reflected the difference of agricultural science and technology. Moreover, the products structure of China's virtual water trade was not reasonable and was excessively focused on several products. Finally, with respect to environmental and water allocation ethics, TPPA countries were classified into four types in terms of net import and water abundance: mutual benefit countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Malaysia and Chile); unilateral benefit countries (Peru and Brunei); supported countries (Japan and Singapore); and double pressure countries (Mexico and Vietnam). With respect to the virtual water trade of agricultural products, there is a close relationship between China and TPPA countries. The virtual water trade promotes the sustainability of water resources and the findings are conducive to the adjustment of trade structure to achieve optimal state of ecology, economy and politics.