Impact of Saudi's Membership in Global and Arab Economic Blocs on its Agricultural Foreign Trade

Abstract

In recent years, the world has witnessed many changes in international economic relations, and the global system has crystallized into major economic blocs aimed at strengthening the position of these blocs in the framework of global international trade and economic stability. Accordingly, the research aims to study the impact of the accession of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the membership of some economic blocs on Saudi agricultural foreign trade during the time period (1995-2019). By depend on both descriptive and quantitative statistical analysis. To study the evolution of the value of agricultural exports and imports and the most important factors affecting each of them, used of some indicators of export competitiveness such as a measure of geographical and commodity concentration. Also used the simultaneous equations method to build an econometric model to analyze the structure of agricultural foreign trade and its estimation by Two-Stage least squares (2SLS) method, the paper predicts the future of Saudi agricultural foreign trade. The research relied on secondary data. The results of the study expect that the average per capita share of agricultural exports, imports and agricultural Balance Deficit will reach about 600, 3.600 and 2.900 thousand riyals, respectively, during the year 2026.