Research On Sino-south Africa Bilateral Trade Commodity Structure Optimization

In recent years, although the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and the Europeandebt crisis gradually improved. In these crises, we can see as these most importanttrading partners of China, when these main economies suffer the crisis will have asignificant impact on China’s international trade, and then affecting our economy. Inthe background of the crisis, let us become more aware of the importance ofdiversifying the trade partners. We should trade with emerging economies and thirdworld countries more frequently, so as to avoid the risk of the economic fluctuations.This paper selected a noteworthy highlight—South Africa. South Africa as one of the"BRICS countries" as well as the most economically developed regions of the Africancontinent. South Africa is rich in mineral resources and has well-developed railwaynetwork and financial system. It is a market that needs to be developed and in-depthunderstood. The trade between China and South Africa is very tortuous. It startedlately, but rapidly developed. China has become the largest trading partner to SouthAfrica for four years; And South Africa is also the largest trading partner for China inAfrica. And South Africa can become a springboard for China to enter the Africanmarket, so the optimization and development of bilateral trade is of great significance.Although bilateral trade has developed rapidly, but there are also a number ofbilateral trade issues that made bilateral trade develop not sustainable, rapid andhealthy. This paper mainly research and analysis the commodity structure of tradebetween the two countries. It elaborated trade development between China and SouthAfrica, as well as trade commodity structure. China keeps the trade surplus during thetrade. And data were collected to detail analysis the import and export of goodsbetween the two countries, the structure of China imports from South Africa mainly inminerals, precious metals and base metals. These products accounted for the absoluteproportion of the structure of China imports from South Africa. The proportion ofother commodities is very low. The commodity structure that China imports fromSouth Africa is too concentrated. Compare South Africa’s main export commodities ofthe world can be found it is still has some differences with the export structure toChina. The mechanical and electrical products account for a large proportion of theexport goods that China export to South Africa, and other commodities mainly lightindustrial products and low-value-added manufactured goods, such as footwear, textiles. And the paper further apply the method of empirical analysis to analysis thedegree of competitiveness of goods and the trade of main goods within the industry,reflecting the commodity structure of trade between the two countries as a whole, andanalyzing each category of merchandise trade by TC index and GL index.Factors affecting the commodity structure of trade between the two countries,mainly in terms of economic development, industrial structure and resourceendowments. These factors form and influence the development of the structure ofcommodities trade between two countries, including resource endowments andindustrial structure are two important factors in the formation of the structure ofcommodity trade between the two countries. Then based on the above analysis, wecan see some main issues in the bilateral trade commodity structure between Chinaand South-Africa. Such as, bilateral trade commodity structure is too concentrated thatmay bring on the economic security risks; the level of commodity structure is low andthe sustainability of traditional strengths is poor; bilateral trade imbalances are alwaysexistence, bilateral trade friction arise frequently. And analysis these issues one by one.According to the comprehensive analysis of the trade commodity structure, this paperdraws the purposes of optimizing the structure of commodity trade between twocountries, it is just a adjust optimization, and gives some main suggestions, such as,improving high-value commodity exports, improve the quality of the commodities,especially to increase exports of high-tech products; accelerate industrial restructuringand upgrading, improving traditional industry, which have superiority all the time,only in this way can the structure of commodity trade between two countries beoptimized. This paper considers that blindly follows their comparative advantages fortrade is not the best choice. We should also consider sustainability issues. China andSouth Africa should strengthen economic communication and deepen cooperation invarious fields, enhance understanding, strengthen investment. One of the mostimportant is the last point, only in this way can truly optimize the structure of bilateraltrade in good, and make the development of the trade between the two countries rapid,stable and sustainable.