Do BRICS countries have similar trade integration patterns?

Abstract

This study explores the similarities of trade integrations in the BRICS member countries. Using time series data from 2001 to 2015 and employing the Panel-Gravity trade model approach, we utilized the separate disaggregated trade data of manufactured goods and raw materials of each BRICS member with United Nations-defined regional groups: the African group, the Asia Pacific group, the Eastern European group, the Latin American and Caribbean group, and the Western European. The analysis results revealed that Russia’s manufactured goods and raw material trade integration based on the Heckscher– Ohlin framework with these five regional groups is not similar to that of other BRICS members following the Linder hypothesis. Furthermore, the dominance of China in total trade flows of BRICS has made the Chinese Yuan's effects on trade with partners from different groups stronger than other BRICS members' national currencies impacts. Geographical distance as a proxy for transportation cost has a weaker negative effect on the manufactured goods and raw materials trade patterns of China and India than it does on other countries, creating dissimilarity in the trade patterns of BRICS countries.