REVEALED COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR WHEAT

Abstract

/^% ,., new indicator of trade performance, called "revealed competitive advantage" (RCA), is used to examine the changing nature of wheat competitiveness and noncompetitiveness. Time series RCA measures for 5 wheat-exporting countries and 20 wheat-importing countries illustrate the dynamics of the international market to the year 2000. RCA comparisons for different agricultural commodities suggest that the U.S. wheat subsector is more internationally competitive than the U.S. agricultural sector as a whole. However, the U.S. wheat subsector is not performing as well as the oilseed and coarse grain subsectors. Three-fourths of the significant wheat-importing countries display a growing competitive disadvantage for wheat, providing evidence of increased specialization in world production.