Comparative Advantage and Competitiveness of Textiles and Apparel Industry of Bangladesh and China in Global Market

Abstract

The paper explores the level of comparative advantage and competitiveness in the Textile and Apparel (T&A) industry of Bangladesh and China is in the global market. It uses the Balassa revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and Spearman Rank Correlation coefficient (rs) to examine the comparative advantage and competitiveness for the two-digit level of HS Code of 14 main products of the industry over the period from 2000 to 2009. The findings show that among the 14 products; Bangladesh improved her comparative advantage over 7 products, lowered over 5 products and remained quite unchanged over 2 products whereas China improved her comparative advantage over 8 products lowered over 2 products and remained quite unchanged over 4 products. According to the Competitiveness analysis of the 14 products; 3 products exist in higher competition, 6 products exist in modest competition and 5 products exist complementary between Bangladesh and China in the global market. As a result, implications were discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Comparative Advantage; Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient; Textiles and Apparel Industry; Bangladesh; China

JEL Classification: B17, F14, F17, F18, P45