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Comparative Advantage Us and Japan

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Comparative Advantage U.S. and Japan
Business Policy and Strategy BA490
12 March 2012

Comparative Advantage
The theory of comparative advantage states that “a country has a comparative advantage in those products that make intensive use of those resources available in abundance within that country” (p. 374) this means if a country such as China has a large supply of unskilled workers and low costs for labor, they have a comparative advantage to the rest of the global market in clothing, and things made by hand or on assembly lines. The US and Japan also have comparative advantage as noted in the below chart and we will discuss the comparative advantage of the US and Japan base on the following calculations. | United States | Japan | Cereals | +0.83 | -0.99 | Mineral Fuels | -0.82 | -0.93 | Pharmaceuticals | -0.25 | -0.51 | Vehicles | -0.41 | +0.81 | Aerospace | +0.58 | -0.44 | Electrical and electronic equipment | -0.26 | +0.41 | Optical, photo, medical and scientific equipment | +0.09 | +0.21 | Apparel (woven) | -0.92 | -0.96 | Finance and insurance | -0.10 | +0.08 | (p. 376)
United State’s comparative advantage The United States has a few things they do very well in the global market the top commodity that the US is able to capitalize on in the global market is cereals. The US is right next to Australia and followed by Canada when it comes to cereal. I think we can attribute this to the natural resource we harvest which is grain. The US seems to have a great opportunity because we have such fertile land to plant and grow grain for cereal. The US is at the top of the Aerospace market when it comes to comparative advantage This may change in the near future since the government has cut spending in Aerospace technology unless private companies decide to embark on this endeavor. Finally the US does show some

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