An Analysis of International Outsourcing in Iran-China Trade Relations

Iran-China relations are deeply rooted in history and have been enhanced recently with bilateral cooperation in the areas of energy, arms sales, trade, political cooperation and cultural ties. The objective of this paper is to analyze the role of international outsourcing in form of trading intermediate products on bilateral trade relations between Iran and China. As an empirical work, we have studied the trade structure of intermediate and final goods between the two countries during the period 1992-2011. Intermediate and final goods traded are classified into three groups: 1) electronic product, 2) automobiles and motorcycles, and 3) apparel and footwear. Observations on such products show that the share of Iran’s intermediate trade with China in these three industries to total trade is about 55% on average. We have concluded that trade in intermediate goods between Iran and China has been more volatile than that of final goods.