Export Product Quality and Technical Trade Barriers:Theoretical and Empirical Evidence from China
Technical trade barriers(TBTs)have been widely utilized in international trade and become an important trade measure for importing countries to restrict foreign products from entering their domestic markets.TBTs initiated by foreign countries have caused significant losses to Chinese enterprises.Although it appears that the number of TBTs worldwide is increasing overall,different types of economies have different focuses when establishing TBTs,and the trends for setting up TBTs for different industries and products are not the same.This paper introduces product quality improvement into the analysis of TBTs based on the game theory.Using data at the product level from 2002 to 2020 and employing fixed effects Poisson and negative binomial models,it empirically examines the factors influencing foreign TBTs,with particular attention to the impact of the upgrade of China's export product quality on foreign TBT decision-making.The baseline regression results indicate that overall,the upgrade of China's export product quality has increased the technical trade barriers encountered by China.Sub-sample regression results based on the proportion of China's import value in the total import value show that the impact of the upgrade of China's export product quality on the technical trade barriers encountered by China intensifies as the proportion of China's import value in the total import value increases,indicating that the rise of Made in China has faced discriminatory trade barriers.In the endogeneity test,this paper uses the average product quality of China's exports to all countries in the year of the case occurrence and the bilateral liner shipping connectivity index between China and the importing country as instrumental variables,and the empirical results are consistent with expectations.In the robustness test,special trade concerns(STCs)are used as a substitute indicator,and the results show that the export product quality of China still significantly increases technical trade barriers.In the heterogeneity analysis,this paper distinguishes different periods,country samples,and product samples.It is found that before the global financial crisis in 2008,the improvement of China's product quality reduced the technical trade barriers,while after the crisis,it significantly increased.In the analysis of country samples,in developing economies such as Brazil,the improvement of China's product quality significantly increases the technical trade barriers,while in developed economies such as the United States,although the impact exists,it is not significant.The analysis of product samples shows that the improvement of manufacturing product quality significantly increases the technical trade barriers,especially in low and medium-low technology industries.Based on the above findings,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations.First,China should closely monitor the technical trade barriers of major trading partners.It should continue to follow up on the technical trade measures of major trading countries,record and update relevant information databases timely,and focus on technical trade measures with significant impact.Second,China should build a comprehensive and multi-level mechanism for handling technical trade barriers.Focusing on the whole process from early warning to handling,and to tracking,and the multi-subject participation covering enterprises,industry associations,and the government,it should continuously improve the mechanism for handling technical trade barriers.Third,China should promote the establishment of a unified and reasonable international standard system.As a major trading country and a contributor to global economic and trade governance,China should strive to promote the formulation and improvement of fair and reasonable international economic and trade rules,improve relevant agreements of the WTO,and combine with the work at the level of regional trade agreements to promote bilateral negotiations with major countries.Fourth,China should jointly resist unfair technical trade barriers with other countries.It should focus on joining forces to resist unfair technical trade barriers and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with countries with common interests.
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