The Impact Of Labor Standards On The Binary Margin Of China’s Export Trade

Since the tariff reform in 1940 s and the formation of the General Agreement on Trade,the reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers has lowered the entry threshold for countries around the world,which has infringed on the rights and interests of international trade protectionists to a certain extent.Therefore,they will find a new way of intellectual property rights,environment,labor standards and other aspects to explore new means of trade security.Some developed countries(regions)are proposing to establish direct links between labor standards and international trade,which are increasingly promoting the issue of labor standards to the international community.As one of the major economies in the world,China’s import and export trade is bound to be affected by the framework of international labor standards.Based on this,how labor standards affect trade flows has become a hot topic.Although some scholars have carried out relevant studies,most of the researches focus on the impact of labor standards on export,but do not study its impact on the microstructure of international trade growth.Therefore,this paper uses the panel data of China’s export trade with 67 countries or regions from 2005 to 2019 in the CEPII BACI database as samples,and uses the extended gravity model to explore the influence mechanism of labor standards of export destination countries on the binary margin of China’s export trade.On the basis of the full sample analysis,this paper explores the differences in the impact of labor standards of export destination countries on the binary margin of China’s export trade under different circumstances through heterogeneity test.The empirical results show that there are significant differences in the ways of influencing the binary margin of China’s export trade among countries(regions)with different degrees of strict labor standards.The stringency of labor standards in export destination countries can affect the binary margin of China’s export trade by affecting labor productivity and labor cost.The increase of economic policy uncertainty has a negative impact on the binary margin of China’s export trade.In addition,in order to verify the correctness and robustness of the benchmark regression conclusion of this paper,we changed the measurement method of the corresponding sub-index of labor standards,and the conclusion is still valid.Through the effective combination of theory and demonstration,we draw the following conclusions: Chinese enterprises should carefully consider the impact of labor standards when conducting foreign trade,select countries and industries according to their own characteristics when conducting cross-border transactions,and make corresponding strategic planning and preventive measures according to the actual situation.At the same time,we should pay attention to the protection of labor rights in our country,because safeguarding labor interests is essentially the foundation of the development and progress of human society and economic prosperity.