An Analysis of the Export Competitiveness of BRIC

The paper attempts to evaluate export competitiveness of BRIC for merchandise trade, covering the period from 1997 to 2013. The study analyses the structure of the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) at Section, Chapter and Product levels. The study further tries to investigate the RCA of BRIC for different types of classification at the product level, i.e., Trade classification, UNCTAD classification and WTO classification. According to Trade Classification, Brazil, Russia and India enjoy RCA for the export of Ricardo products (products which use natural resources for their production). For Heckscher-Ohlin products (produced with standard technology with lowR&D intensity), India and China show competitiveness mainly due to abundant labour endowment. However, in the group, only China depicts RCA in the export of Product-cycle products (technology-intensive with high R&D intensity) because of FDI which helped China to gain RCA from 2005 onwards. UNCTAD Classification suggests that with the exception of China all other BRIC members enjoy export competitiveness for primary goods. Moreover, BRIC invariably shows export competitiveness for low-technology skill-based products. However, none of the member countries of BRIC exhibit advantage in exporting medium and high-technology skill-based products with the exception of China. On the basis of massive FDI inflows accompanied by advanced technology, China exhibits RCA in high-technology skill-based products from 2003 onwards. As per WTO Classification, BRIC lost its export competitiveness for agricultural products from 2003 onwards. However, Brazil maintains its comparative advantage for agricultural,raw material and intermediate products. India and China retain their competitiveness for consumer products. As far as capital goods are concerned, China is the only country in the group that started to gain competitiveness from 2003 onwards.