Research On The Trade Facilitation Of 21st Century Maritime Silk Road

In 2013 President Xi Jinping proposed the establishment of "21st Century Maritime Silk Road".This proposal,which is based on the background of domestic economy and international situation,is a strategy adjustment and its priority areas are connectivity and the facility of trade and invest.21st Century Maritime Silk Road connects Europe and the Asia Pacific Economic Circle,and links South Asia,West Asia and some African countries.It mainly focuses on the Southeast Asian countries.Trade in goods between China and Marine Silk Road countries is heavy and speeds up quickly.However,due to the low trade facilitation of countries alongside Maritime Silk Road,bilateral trade in goods between China and other countries couldn't fulfill their big potential.As one of the core construction of the Maritime Silk Road,trade facilitation can eliminate barriers and reduce cost of international trade,in that way all countries can improve their economy.In this paper,we build an evaluation system based on port efficiency,customs environment,rule environment and electronic commerce.And make he status of trade between China and the Marine Silk Road countries in goods and trade facilitation development as entry points.Then through empirical analysis we quantify the impact from trade facilitation measures to trade in goods.Maritime Silk Road is divided into four areas just as ASEAN,South Asia,Gulf States and west Asia,the Red Sea and East Africa.According to this four areas we analyzes the bilateral trade in goods and the trade facilitation development situation.Then we get that trade in goods between China and ASEAN,Gulf States and west Asia is large.They have strong complementarity.And trade in goods between China and South Asia,the Red Sea and East Africa is less.The trade facilitation level of different country differs a lot.Besides Singapore,Malaysia and the Gulf Cooperation Council,which has high trade facilitation level,others' facilitation level is very low.The level of customs environment and electronic commerce is comparatively low.Based on the analysis of trade in goods and the trade facilitation,with panel data and gravity model which has been extended and revised,we then empirically analyze the trade facilitation influence on bilateral trade in goods.And we find that trade facilitation has greater influence in promoting bilateral trade in goods than the GDP,FTA and shorten distance between countries.Through further analysis by dividing different areas and different index,we can get that to countries which has low trade facilitation level,their trade facilitation influence is lager than high level countries.And among the four index,port efficiency is the most important to promote the trade of goods,and the promotion of electronic commerce is the least.Empirical equations from the gravity model can be used to estimate the trade potential of each country,based on the estimation we know that potential in ASEAN differs a lot,trade potential in South Asia and the Red Sea and East Africa is big,and potential in Gulf States and west Asia is small.Finally,based on the theoretical and empirical analysis of the conclusions,from the guiding principles,the main direction,the construction of framework and specific measures,this paper proposes several recommendations for the construction of 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and improvement of the level of trade facilitation.