Empirical Study of China's Soybean Import Market

With a 1.3 billion population, fastest economic growth, and increasing political power in world issues, China is definitely an emerging power in the world. Any topics related to China are of great interest to the world. Globally, China is the number one soybean importer. The US, Brazil, and Argentina are the top three soybean exporters. In 2006, the US, Brazil, and Argentina supplied 92% of China's soybean imports. Soybean trade is very important for these involving countries. This research developed and estimated a twocountry partial equilibrium trade model to test who has stronger market power in the Chinese soybean import market and conducted the competitive analysis of the Chinese soybean import market by examining both annual and monthly data. Empirical result implies that China's soybean importers have stronger market power relative to soybean exporters in the US, Brazil, and Argentina. Comparative analysis indicates that the US and South America (Brazil and Argentina) are seasonal complementary soybean suppliers for China. This research is of great interest to soybean producers, traders, and agribusinesses in these countries as well as the academic sector and policymakers.