The Research On Immiserizing Growth Problem Of Rare Earth Resources’ S Export Trade In China

Known as ‘industrial vitamin’, rare earth is a mineral resource with special performance, which is widely used in military, industry, high technology, and other fields. With the increasing development and emphasis on national defense and military across the world, more attention has been laid on rare earth as a national security strategic resource. With the possession of abundant rare earth, China ranks first in rare earth exportation all over the world. During the last three decades of rare earth export trade, significant changes have taken place in characteristics of rare earth exportation in China. Despite the economic benefits brought by the growth of exportation, a lot of disadvantages emerged at the same time. Due to the lack of pricing power, rather than turning resource advantage into economic advantage, China can merely accept prices offered passively, which may leads to deterioration of trade condition and further immiserizing growth.In the aspect of the terms of trade, this research calculated the terms of trade of rare earth in China via empirical analysis method. Based on statistical data from 1996 to 2014 of which 1996 was set as base period, this research calculated the price of rare earth trade conditions and income terms of trade. Furthermore, stage trend diagrams were sketched from the trend of trade terms. We may come to a conclusion that immiserizing growth did exist in rare earth export trade in China while gradual improvement could be seen. In final, a solution was proposed in order to eliminate immiserizing growth of rare earth export trade in China and acquire due trade benefit based on former chapters.