Research On International Trade Friction From The Perspective Of Structure, Technology And Institutions

In the world of today, international trade has shown strong game characteristic of collision and coordination, and that of competition and cooperation. In this game, the placid, orderly and all-win situation has not appeared as expected. Instead, international trade frictions frequently take place. The occurrence of trade frictions has seriously hindered the sustainable development of the world economy. So, the major problem that countries of the world face is to find out an optimum route to dissolve such friction and bring about positive-sum games between all trading parties.However, quite a lot of trade literature today still remain dispersed and discuss only individual cases, making it difficult to find a general basic principle to explain all trade friction behaviors, not to mention the lack of analysis of the time background with prompt technology development, in which international trade frictions occur and the ignorance of the convergence of industrial structure that appears in trade practices. This thesis attempts to probe into the problem of friction in international trade from the perspective of institutions, structure and technology, with a view to providing some valuable analysis for the healthy development of international trade.Based on the systematic summary of existing research findings of international trade friction, and on the fact that international trade frictions frequently occur, this thesis, taking industrial structure, system difference and technological diffusion as the cut-in points, studies the reasons, characteristics and effects of international trade friction, in an attempt to construct an all-win theoretical framework of international trade with the trinity of"structure complementation--technology actuation-- institution coordination". The thesis, by analyzing trade frictions between China and other countries, offers some countermeasures for the rising China.International trade theory has explained the win-win philosophy of complete division of work and mutual benefit in trade. But in actual trade practice, in industries with remarkable scale, such as steel and automobile, in industries with important and strategic significance to national economy and people's livelihood such as agriculture and in Hi-Tech and other industries that can bring enormous profits, the similarity of structure between countries appears. Exportation similarity index and product similarity coefficient show that this similarity of structure is becoming more serious. The game model in this thesis demonstrates that it is the similarity of industrial structure that causes frequent trade frictions, embodied with the characteristics of universality. So, to avoid international trade friction, international industrial policy should be coordinated, and a system of international division network with structural complementation and coexistence of horizontal and vertical divisions of labor should be established.According to"the North-South trade model"and"the leapfrog model", international diffusion of the technology will reduce the relative welfare level of developed countries and threaten their leading status. So developed countries impose strict restrictions on the export of new high-tech products, which in turn brings about more trade conflicts, with the result of more imbalance of international trade on the part of countries that impose these restrictions and more trade barriers for those countries who are victims of these restrictions. This thesis designs a"technology actuation"trade model, with a view to helping countries out of the present predicament. The model shows a new-type of cooperative competition relations in international trade, demonstrates the win-win possibility in international trade, and points out that the restraint of relevant systems, such as intellectual property right will upgraded traditional trade barrier and reduce the probability of trade friction.Just as the proposition that"Institutions start trade"put forward by North, institutions play a very important function in international trade. By using the evolution game model and responsive anti-dumping model, this thesis has laid particular emphasis on analyzing the friction-inducing mechanism of the loopholes and ambiguity in the WTO Safeguard Measure System, Anti-dumping Agreement, Dispute Settlement Understanding, discusses the difference in technical standards handled by different enterprises in different countries and the correlativity of such difference to international trade friction. In the thesis, the author proposes a way to avoid international trade friction and realize the win-win game: to establish a free trade mechanism which encourages compatibility, to perfect the various systems of the WTO according to the principle of equity and to coordinate institutions differences.The thesis also analyzes trade frictions between China and other countries, and comes to the basic conclusion: China is faced with an ever serious"international trade friction tide", which is an inevitable result of the rise of China. The irrationality of its economic structure and the defect in its system are the internal factors that cause such a"friction tide". The thesis finally proposes stratagems to deal with trade friction: optimize China's industrial structure, engage in constant technological innovation and perfect the rules and regulations to suit international trade.There are still many questions that need further discussion in the thesis, such as: the international trade friction caused by the country origin differences of exchange rate system and intellectual property right protection system, the construction of "technology actuation" trade model, systematization of the international trade friction theory.