Intra-industry Trade in Latvian Agricultural Commodities and Food Products

Abstract

The share of simultaneous exports and imports of the same types of products by a country or intra-industry trade has gown continuously over the last century. At the same time, share of inter-industry trade when countries specialize in production and trade occurs only between industries has declined. Trade in differentiated products of the same sector and the same stage of processing is referred to as a horizontal intraindustry trade. Such products are close substitutes for each other in terms of factor inputs and consumption. Trade in products of the same sector at different stages of processing is referred to as a vertical intra-industry trade. According to economic theory, a rise in the share of intra-industry trade is occurring within the trade growth in general due to an economic development and broader integration. Since early nineties, Latvia has remained a net importer of agri-food products. At the same time, both exports and imports of agricultural commodities and processed food products has consistently grown, with total trade turnover increasing. The objective of the study is to determine the share of the intra-industry trade and structural changes in the sectors of Latvian agricultural production and food processing over the last decade. To reach the research objectives, Grubel-Lloyd intraindustry trade indexes, Brülhart marginal intra industry trade indexes and Thom-McDowell indexes of total marginal intraindustry trade were compiled for Latvian agri-food trade data over ten years period from 2002 to 2011. The research results show consistently high share of intra-industry trade in total Latvian trade in agricultural commodities and food products over the whole period. A shift from predominantly vertical marginal intra-industry trade towards horizontal marginal intraindustry trade is observed.