Research On The Competitiveness And Complementarity Of Trade Between China And APEC Members

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) is currently the largest regional economic integration organization in the Asia-Pacific region, with 21 member states surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. The population of APEC accounts for 40% of the world and the trade volume accounts for 48% of the whole world, thus APEC occupies a decisive position in the entire Asia-Pacific region and even the world. In 2014, China's total volume of imports and exports with APEC members accounts for 58% of world trade, so the APEC members are very important trade partners in foreign trade. Especially after the European debt crisis, China's economy has become the engine of the Asia-Pacific region and even the world's, so that C hina's position in the Asia-Pacific foreign trade becomes hot. There are many countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region, which greatly differ in geopolitical location, political system and level of economic development; while C hina's status quo of trade is different from the member states, remaining competing or complementary to each other. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the history of APEC and current trade situation in Asia-Pacific region, and also C hina's trade relation with the remaining 20 members to clearly define the characteristics of C hina in regional trade. To have a good understanding of C hina's relationship with different members in the Asia-Pacific trade through quantitative analysis of various economic indicators has practical significance to optimize the trade structure, resolve trade disputes, make targeted trade policies and promote regional economic integration.In this context, based on the relevant theory of foreign trade, the article first introduces the development of APEC since it was founded in 1989, then has a comprehensive analysis of the foreign trade status quo of the APEC region and China, using the United Nations trade statistics from 1992 to 2014. On the whole, the article focuses on analyzing the competitive and complementary relationship of C hina in APEC regional trade through the method of quantitative analysis, using indicators including the export market share index, the revealed comparative advantage index and intra- industry trade index to analyze the competitive relationship, while using indicators including the trade integration index, trade complementarity index and trade specialization index to do the complementary analysis, and on this basis gives targeted recommendations on optimizing the development.The results show that, China occupies obvious advantage in exporting SITC-8, which stands for miscellaneous manufactured articles, SITC-6, which refers to finished products under classification of raw materials,and SITC-7,which is machinery and transport equipment. The export volume of these three products accounts for 90% of total export volume to APEC, and these three kinds of products are the main export products. Countries that have similar level of industrial development in these three corresponding industry compete with C hina. Due to lack of resources and advanced technology, C hina does not occupy comparative advantages in products that have huge domestic economic needs, including primary products, chemicals and military products. Therefore, C hina's import demand in these products is relatively high, thus forms a complementary relationship with countries that have comparative advantages in corresponding products. China needs to continue industrial upgrading, eliminate industries that are a waste of resources, and develop industries with high technology and high value-added.