The Paradox Of China's Foreign Trade And Intra-Product Specialization

It is well-known that, in recent years, China has seen its great achievement in developing foreign trade. Obviously, there exist some problems, among which are the two striking ones: the promotion of China's export commodities does not result in dynamic evolution of China's comparative advantages; the intensification of export commodity structure does not help to improve China's foreign trade condition. With a sober-minded consideration, we find out that the achievements as well as problems in China's foreign trade are closely related to the pattern of China's foreign trade and the form of China's participation in international division; that innovation of product structure, the development of manufacturing trade and changes in trade partners are all related to China's status in the present world labor division and the global system of production; and that modes of extensive trade increase, frequent trade frictions, worsening conditions of trade are related to China's manufacturing trade whose chain value ranks at the bottom of global industries. Traditional trade theories turn to be rather weak in explaining"why the bigger the number of China's trade industries is, the less competitive China's trade industries are?"and"why the bigger the number of China's trade industries is, the less chain value China's trade industries enjoy?"Hence this dissertation tends to introduce another frame or method to analyze and explain the above-mentioned phenomena so as to realize the transformation of China's foreign trade pattern, which is of significance in both theory and practice of international trade.In the process of globalization, intra-product specialization is a new concept, method or mechanism for the international division of labor and the development of international trade. The aim of intra-product specialization is to form a division system of labor, which concerns the procedures, blocks and intermediate links of manufacturing, through the spatial distribution of the product-manufacturing to different countries. This kind of division system may exert great influence over comparative advantages in traditional sense, trade conditions, trade patterns and further expansion of international trade. Consequently, it is significant, theoretically and practically, to explore the evolution, features and law of intra-product specialization in order to explain the accelerated international division of labor, the expansion of trade, the development of foreign trade and economic growth of China.