The Impact Of Trade Facilitation On China’s Export To RCEP Countries Of Mechanical And Electrical Products

In 2021,the export volume of China’s mechanical and electrical products reached $1,772.87 billion,accounting for 48.2% of China’s total export volume,and accounting for 20.9% of the world’s total export volume of mechanical and electrical products.Mechanical and electrical products,as the most important goods driving China’s export,play a vital role in the development of China’s foreign trade economy.However,as the degree of tariff reduction becomes smaller and smaller,the promoting effect on trade is more and more limited,and researchers turn to focus on the problem of trade inefficiency.According to theories such as free trade,enhancing a country’s level of opening up and trade facilitation is conducive to strengthening foreign trade.Therefore,major economic and trade organizations aim to actively encourage member countries to reduce trade barriers,so as to serve as a new driving force for the development of global trade in the "post-tariff era".At the smae time,on January 1,2022,the RCEP(Economic Partnership for Regional Cooperation)came into effect,creating opportunities for China to expand trade.The RCEP has a special chapter on trade facilitation.In the terms of the agreement,member states not only commit to gradually reduce import tariffs to zero within 10 years,but also strengthen cooperation in customs procedures,inspection and quarantine and technical standards to reduce non-tariff trade barriers.Additionally,most of the members of the RCEP are developing countries.They still face such problems as backward infrastructure construction,limited Internet coverage and wide gap on international trade rules and standards.Therefore,the signing of RCEP is conducive to the promotion of trade facilitation among members,not only reduce transaction costs and expand market for China’s export of mechanical and electrical products,but also achive the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry through the difference of resource factor endowment.Therefore,this paper takes into account the export promotion mechanism of mechanical and electrical products from the perspective of trade facilitation of partner countries,and provides opportunities and momentum for the development of trade in mechanical and electrical products.This paper analyzes the relationship between trade facilitation of RCEP members and China’s export of mechanical and electrical products by literature induction,empirical analysis and comparative analysis methods.First of all,by summarizing the previous literature studies on the measurement system of trade facilitation,welfare effect and influencing factors of mechanical and electrical products,discover that there are lots of essay about trade facilitation,but few discussion about China’s export to RCEP countries of mechanical and electrical products and consensus on welfare effect of trade facilitation.So,one of the innovation is using indicators differ from former,another is making heterogeneity analysis on classification of mechanical and electrical products.Besides,provides research direction and theoretical support by free trade theory,transaction cost theory and information asymmetry theory.Then,calculating 11 countries degree of trade facilitation based on a trade facilitation measurement system and listing country’s policies on improving trade facilitation.At the same time,analyzes the import and export condition and characteristics of mechanical and electrical products of China and 11 RCEP countries from three aspects of export scale,structure and market,and further uses RCA index and TC index to analyze the international competitive advantages and export potential of mechanical and electrical products of China and RCEP countries.Results show that China is the most important source of import of mechanical and electrical products of RCEP countries.And China’s mechanical and electrical products have strong competitive advantages,second only to Japan and South Korea.Thirdly,a trade facilitation measurement system is constructed with four indicators as first-level indicators and 16 second-level indicators,including infrastructure quality,regulatory environment,customs environment and financial support,and the comprehensive trade facilitation index is obtained by principal component analysis.The result shows that the RCEP countries are generally in a state of "unfavorable" trade,and only Singapore is in a state of "very convenient" trade.Based on the panel data of trade between China and RCEP countries from 2011 to 2019,an extended gravity model with trade facilitation index as the core variable and China’s mechanical and electrical product exports as the explained variable was established.Stata.16 was used for Benchmark regression.The results show that trade facilitation of RCEP members significantly promoted export of China’s mechanical and electrical product,China’s export to RCEP of mechanical and electrical products would increasing 1.299% when the degree of RCEP countries’ trade facilitation increase 1%.In addition,the heterogeneity analysis is made from the classification of mechanical and electrical products and the income level of importing countries.The results show that the effect of trade facilitation is more obvious in developing countries,nuclear reactors,boilers,machinery,mechanical instrument sand accessories,vehicles and accessories products.In view of this,proposing policy suggestions on giving priority to the categories of key mechanical and electrical products and developing countries,improving land,sea and air connectivity of RCEP countries,promoting cooperation with partner countries in finance and e-commerce,and accelerating the implementation of the provisions of the Free Trade Agreement.