A Research Of Strategic Trade Policy In America

In domain of international trade,the dominant theory was relative comparative advantage theory and H-O theory,both of which were on the basis of the rule of comparative advantage.Its main idea is that a country should input the resources which has comparative advantage,to product and participate in international division of labor.So the comparative advantageous structure of foreign trade of one country will come into being.The perfect analytic frame of comparative advantage theory provides strong explanation for free trade.However,as the emerge of a series of phenomenon after the Second World War,traditional theory can't explain objective reality well:First,the emerge of Leontief Mystery made economists rethink the system of traditional trade theory.Second,developing countries were trapped in"Comparative Advantage Trap".Third,at the times of global economy, intra-industry trade and intra-company trade rose in a large scale and became the main part of international trade,but traditional theory can only explain the trade among different industries.At late 1970s,the economists,such as Dixit,Krugman, Lancaster,Helpman,etc,put industry orgnisition theory into the analytic frame of international trade,and jump out of the hypothesis of traditional trade theory,and put forward New Trade Theory on the basis of incomplete competition and scale economy.So it overturn the traditional conclusions:comparative advantage is not the only reason of international trade.Scale economy,incomplete competition market structure and the excess profit in it are also the important basis.On global economy,as the improvement of resources liquidity , the decisive factor of international division of labor is from static comparative advantage to dynamic competition advantage.The theory of strategic trade policy was put forward on the basis of New Trade Theory:As the subjective occurance of incomplete competition and scale economy, the market is on"second best"condition.So free trade is not No 1.choice.A country could lower the cost of a company,and strengthen the international competitiveness of domestic company,and extract more excessive monopoly profit,and finally increase national welfare,by means of subsidy and tariff.In addition to extraction of profit,external economy is another motivation.The positive"spill-out"effet will come into being as the innovation of high-tech industry,which can improve the development of relative industries,and diffuse external economy effect to all area,and finally benefit the nation.So appropriate support for strategic industries could improve the quality of economy system of a country,the level of science&technology,and the structure of industry.The significance of strategic trade policy is to provide platform for the combination between trade policy and industry policy.Appropriate government intervention could change the strategic action of company,and speed up structuring competitive advantage.So it will relate to dynamic,long-term advantages and disadvantages of a nation.However,the model of strategic trade policy has many limitations,such as the excessive dependent on mode of competition,and number of company;the revenge of foreign government for its"beggar thy neighbor"characteristics;the deviation for information asymmetry,faulty of economy mechanism.So it should obey the rule of flexibility and caution to put into use.The apply to strategic trade policy in America is a better example for its"pragmatism"external economy strategy.Do protectionism in the name of free trade.In view of huge dual-deficit at 1980s,and the threat from Japan and European Union,Reagan government abandoned free trade policy,and resorted to fair trade policy:301 clause,mutual benefit agreement,etc,prove foreign market open to America and obtain more opportunities to export.Entering 1990s',Clinton government strengthened to export,while implementing fair trade policy,and put forward significan"tNational Export Strategy".By using export subsidy,R&D subsidy,import tariff,it supported strategic industries to develop,and stimulated innovation on technique,and obtained scale economy,external economy benefit.Entering the new century,facing the decline of demestic economy and the assault of terrorism,the foreign trade policy of W.Bush government therefore wasn't as detailed as Clinton's,but it was still strategic trade policy:implementing"competitive free"strategy for its advantageous industries on global market and improve the level of protection on traditional industries.The success of strategic trade policy make America obtain tremendous economic benefits in almost every area.From macroeconomy angle,"National Export Strategy","competitive free strategy"promote American export,and pull up GDP,and increase national competitiveness,the level of science&technique and productivity. So it stop American economic decline since 1980s,and effectively prop up the prosperity of"New Economy".From mid-angle,the rapid development of semi-conductor industry,civil aviation industry and information industry can't do without government intervention.The development of American high-tech industry makes huge trade surplus,and establish tremendous advantage.From microeconomy angle,American government view the competitiveness of company as the core of national competiveness , and work out various law and system to ensure the patent achievement,and create a better environment to stimulate R&D action,and encourage and lead merge and restructure to increase productivity to go a step further.After reform on 1978,GDP and resident income of China greatly increase,and the proportion of trade grow.China has became a big economy and trade entity.Therefore,the developing pattern of our economy and trade is still rough. That is,exporting commodities has four characteristics:high energy consumption;high contamination;high dependent on global market;low value added.So it prevents China from increasing competitiveness,and make our country lag on the low position of international division of labor.Subjectively speaking,labor-intensive industry which greatly relieve employment pressure is still the most advantageous branch in our country.But from long-term development,if China want to truly rise,and break away from developed countries on fund and technique,we should not be limited to comparative advantage,but cultivate competitiveness advantage as soon as possible.So strategic trade policy is really a good choice.Generally speaking,Strategic trade policy has vast applying space,with the deepening of market reform,huge domestic volume, and the reconstruction of market structure.While learning the successful experience of America,we must consider carefully our country's condition,and do some work as below:(1)As a new member of WTO,the measure of trade protection and industry support in traditional way must be limited.So it is important to coordinate strategic trade policy and WTO rule,avoiding the worsening of foreign trade environment.(2)Considering the concrete condition,support traditional manufacture industry , fund-intensive industry and high-tech industry during different phase,and coordinate the relationship of them.(3)We must avoid the influence of benefit group.(4)We should create a good environment for innovation,and take technological progress and education seriously(.5)We must attach importance to the whole of policy , and coordinate various factor among macroeconomy,mideconomy and microeconomy,to ensure the maximal effect.(6)We should perfect export service system,including export guarantee mechanism,export financing mechanism,etc(.7)We should attach importance to the continuity and complication of policy,to load the mission on several generations by stages.