Study On The Rise Of Great Nations And Accompanying International Trade Frictions

For a great nation, foreign trade is road to persperity, a barometer for measuring the economic boost and weathering the decline, and an arena for competing with other great nations. Tracing the history of world development, we can clearly recognize that the rise of Portugal and Spain in the16th century, the prime of the Netherlands in the17th century, the so-called "world’s factory"of the United Kingdom in the18th century, the United States’overtaking the United Kingdom in the19th century and domination of the world in the20th century, the rapid revitalization of Germany and Japan in the second half of20th century... As long as trade exists, trade friction will persist. During all those courses, foreign trade has been an important driving force for promoting economic development in the rising of great powers, with trade friction working as the reaction force. The faster the economy of a great nation grows, the severer the trade friction it will suffer. However, for emerging great nations, the outbreak of trade frictions possesses a degree of peculiarity.Today, the rise of China as the largest developing country in the world has caught worldwide attention. It symbolizes that one-fifth of the global population has entered into the modern society. This is the rise of a super-sized nation, which has no precedent in history. According to the research conclusion of forerunners, the foreign trade dependence of large nations is generally low; however, China has broken the rule. With its rise, China has stepped onto the stage of intensified trade frictions. How should we perceive those trade frictions and problems they aroused? What measures we could take to tackle them down? Those questions are pivotal to the sustainable and healthy development of China’s ecnomy. Frankly speaking, we are not only short of necessary theoretical preparations, but also short of a "great nation mind", which needs immediate attention and solution.Not only do the sum involved and the occurrence frequency escalate, but trade frictions diversify into increasingly different forms, In addition to the usual forms of anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures, trade barriers such as TBT (Technical Barriers to Trade), intellectual property infringement investigation, safety standards, environmental standards and certification of corporate social responsibility activities and many other different forms are growing everyday; and as if infected by develoed nations, an increasing number of developing nations are having trade frictions with China. China’s foreign trade is besieged by developed nations, developing nations, and other emerging great nations. And we can expect, with China’s rapid soar both in economic development and in the ranking of international powers, international trade friction will be a norm for China in the future, and even escalate.The dissertation hold, though there are various reasons for the trade frictions during the rise of great nations, the fundamental one is the dramatic changes in the inthernaitonal order, in the international division of labor and in profit distribution pattern brought about by the rise of emerging great nations. This is inevitable. On its rise, a great nation normally will experience the course of trade friction intensification and then attenuation. Today, accompaning the rise of China, China’s trade friction with its trading partners is accummulating up. Especially after the global economic crisis, the trade protectionism is resurging around the world. To cope with the situation, China should stick on to the principal of "to be integrated into the existing system"; adapts itself into the current international trade system while improves it; advocate free trade and actively involves in the further development of regional FTAs; and adopt differentiated trade strategies and policies towards the "three trading targets".The methodology employed in this dissertation is as follows. First, a combination of historical and logic studies is employed. Historical development is the basis for logical analysis, and logic relations should be in accord with historical description. The two are interrelated to and supplement each other. No science can use only one of the methods. Therefore, this dissertation will start from history to explore the examples of great nation rises. Then it will continue to analyze the special reasons for the formation of trade frictions during the rising of a great nation. By using historical facts to corroborate the correction of logic reasoning, the dissertication tries to unify historical and logic studies. Second, a combination of economic and political theories is utilized. International trade theories are the foundation for the analysis of foreign trade frictions. However, during the rise of great nations, trade frictions arise not only because of economic reasons, but also because of political reasons. In this sense, political theories and economic theories should be combined in the exploration of foreign trade friction during the rise of great nations. Lack of either one will make the analysis one-sided.The dissertation is divided into seven chapters. Chapter1is an introduction. Chapter2reviews the history in the rise of great powers. Taking1500AD as a starting point, the dissertation introduces the history of nine great nations-Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Russia, Germany and Japan. It summarizes their routes and methods of rise, successes and declines, as well as the failure cases. Chapter3reviews the theories for new-rise great nations and theories of international trade frictions respectively, and extends trade friction theories to inspect the unique reasons for trade frictions on rise of new great nations. Chapter4examines trade friction forms, influences and causes. The emphasis is on the economic, political and other causes behind trade frictions of an emerging great nation with existing great nations, with middle and small sized nations, and with other emerging great nations. Chapter5outlines the trade frictions during the rise of emerging great nations, which provides enlightment as how to handle trade fricitons and formulating trade policies for emerging great nations. Chapter6analyzes China’s rise and its impact on the international trade friction, and put forward some countermeasures. Chapter7is the conclusion of the whole paper.Innovations are reflected in two aspects. First, the research is conducted on innovative perspectives. The prevalent methodology for international trade friction study is to take one single perspective; and most studies are confined to trade conflicts between emerging and existing great nations. Standing on the altitude of national stakes, this dissertation gives a comprehensive analysis of economic, political and diplomatic causes for trade frictions. Not only does it analyze trade frictions for emerging with existing great nations, it also analyzes trade frictions with middle and small sized nations, and trade frictions with other emerging great nations. Second, innovative viewpoints are elaborated. It applies traditional micro-economic theories into the model of trade frictions between emerging great nations and existing ones. For labor-intensive industries, it presented a low-cost advantage model for emerging great nations. Also, it divided China’s rise into stages and plots a trade friction curve accordingly.The limitations of this dissertaton maily reflected in two aspects. First, the empirical analysis is insufficient. Because of the inadequate knowledge structure, energy and capabilities of the author, this dissertation represents a preliminary analysis of trade frictions. The empirical analysis involved is elementary, and many variables such as technique, production scale are not discussed. Second, when considering the causes for trade frictions during China’s rise, this dissertation is defective in theoretical analysis and systematic analysis. The author decides to improve them in her future studies.