The Research Of International Competitiveness Of Aquatic Products In Our Country

Aquatic products, which are rich in animal protein, have become the indispensable nutrient source in people's diet composition. With the development of economy and improvement of people's living standard, aquatic products have been favored by more and more people, thus creating ever enlarging market demand. The countries that abound in aquatic resources pay much attention to the development of aquaculture. As the largest producer of aquatic products in the whole world, our country occupies a prominent position in the world's market of aquatic products. Therefore, it is quite necessary to do some research on the related issues on aquatic products.Up to now, the researches of scholars mainly concentrate on issues such as the aquatic products' present trend of development, the problems appearing during its development and the technical barriers to foreign trade. Based on the research findings of the pioneer researchers, this thesis, through detailed analysis of comparative advantage and competitive advantage of the aquatic products of our country, intends to explore the factors that influence the competitiveness of the aquatic products so as to put forward strategies to improve its international competitiveness.The research findings show that our country does not rank among the large trading countries of aquatic products in spite of its large production. The status tells that both the production and trade volume of aquatic products in our country take lead in the world. However, the proportion of its trading volume to the world's weighs far less than that of its production output to the world's weighs. After calculating the relevant competitiveness index, we can see that the competitiveness of aquatic products in our country lags behind that of some developing countries which are also abundant in aquatic products. When compared with the developed countries that mainly rely on import of aquatic products, our country's advantage can barely be seen. Thus, the conclusion can be drawn that at present, the aquaculture in our country has developed to the period when the comparative advantage is functioning but weakening while the competitive advantage is developing but yet to be completely formed. The comparative advantage accounts as the base of development and the natural competitive advantage which should not be abandoned. But at the same time, it is also important to realize the danger that will prop up if we solely rely on competitive advantage to develop our aquaculture.This thesis makes use of trade gravity model to analyze the factors that affect trade flows of aquatic products, extends and rectifies the previous research findings, chooses proper explanatory variables and constructs gravity model. Through careful analysis, this thesis argues that the trade gravity model with explanatory variables of total value of our country's fisheries and the GDP of trade partners, the distance between our country and trade partner countries, the gap between per capita GDP, mutual cultural background and bilateral trade complementary coefficient (OBC) can best explain the bilateral trade flows of our country. These five factors impose significant influence not only upon the trade of aquatic products, but also upon its export. Judging from the coefficient of regression results, the power of influence upon the bilateral trade flows of aquatic products weakens in the order of total value of our country's fisheries and the GDP of trade partners, mutual cultural background, the distance between our country and trade partner countries, bilateral trade complementary coefficient and with the gap between per capita GDP as the last. Furthermore, through analysis of the actual value and the simulated value, this thesis can further distinguish whether their relationships with different trading partners are "over-trading", "under-trading" or "balanced trading", which increases the pertinence of the strategies.After a thorough and detailed analysis, this thesis points out that our country is supposed to give priority to those countries with comparatively large economic scale and steady, consistent and rapid development when choosing trade partners of aquatic products. It is necessary to maintain a good relationship with present trading partners, to improve the quality of aquatic products and to satisfy the consumer demands of the consumers in the trading partner countries. Besides, to improve the international competitiveness of the aquatic products, our country has to taken into consideration all influential factors and weigh between advantages and disadvantages when opening a new market in order to gain most while pay least.