A study of the Thai exports' performance to Japan

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the export performance of the Thai agriculture products and manufacturing products to Japan, as well as examine some factors that impact on the expansion those major export items to the Japan. Six products among those major export products to Japan are identified as two categories, the agricultural products and manufacturing products which each categories have three products each ,Frozen shrimps, natural rubber and sugar are classified as agricultural products, while automatic data processing machines and parts thereof, belong to the manufacturing products. The statistical analysis, the Constant Market Share (CMS) Model and Revealed Comparative advantage (RCA) Index Model are the methods used to study the export performance of all these products. From the statistical analysis for the years 1989-1998, it can be seen that the structure of the Thai exports to Japan had trended upward but the value decreased during economic crisis period 1997-1998. The manufacturing products were most export to Japan The products had trended upward such as sugar and electronic integrated circuits and The products had trended downward such as frozen shrimps, natural rubber, automatic data processing machines and parts thereof, radio broadcast receives, television receives and parts thereof. The study under the CMS model was divided into two periods: 1995-1996 and 1997-1998 The overall picture shows that the expansion of Thai exports were reliant on the growth of the market and the demand for the products. Furthermore, only natural rubber, sugar and radio broadcast receives, television receives and parts thereof had comparative advantage. For the 1997- 1998 period, the expansion of the Thai exports was still reliant on the market growth. What’s more there was a fall in the demands for some products, and only automatic data processing machines and parts thereof and radio broadcast receives, television receives and parts thereof were in demand. There was also an increase in the Thai export competitiveness, especially in the products such as natural rubber, sugar, electronic integrated circuits and radio broadcast receives, television receives and parts thereof. By using the RCA model for the year 1995-1998, comparing the Thai exports to Chains Singapore, Malaysia Philippines and Indonesia, the results show that Thailand has the most comparative advantage in sugar, while frozen shrimps, natural rubber and radio broadcast receives, television receives and parts thereof have also comparative advantage. Thailand has on comparative advantage in automatic data processing machines and parts thereof, and electronic integrated circuits.