A Study On The Consumer Welfare Distribution Effects In The Import Trade Liberalization In Taiwan

There are regional differences in Taiwan’s import trade liberalization reform.In addition to the import trade from the mainland,since the early 1980s,Taiwan began to continuously promote the import trade liberalization reform from other regions,which is reflected in the continuous improvement of the opening degree of import categories and the continuous decline of import tariffs.In contrast,Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from the mainland started late and the degree is relatively low.Taiwan’ s trade liberalization reform promotes the rapid development of Taiwan’ s foreign trade and affects the economic development and people’s livelihood.International trade theory and consumer theory show that,both the import tariff reduction and import categories opening of consumer goods of the import trade liberalization will affect consumer welfare.The import tariff reduction of consumer goods will affect consumer prices and wages,and further affect consumer welfare in both expenditure and income channels.Due to the heterogeneity of consumer and laborer,the impact of the import trade liberalization on the welfare of different consumers is different,that is,there is welfare distribution effect.And in turn,this will affect the attitudes of different consumers towards trade liberalization;The import categories opening of consumer goods will expand consumers’ consumption feasible set and further affect the consumers’ welfare.This paper analyzes the consumer welfare distribution effect in the import trade liberalization in Taiwan from two aspects.In view of the degree of the import categories opening of consumer goods from other regions is relatively high,this paper examines its impact on the consumer welfare distribution mainly from the perspective of import tariff reduction of consumer goods.However,the degree of the import categories opening of consumer goods from the mainland is relatively low,thus this paper examines its impact on the consumer welfare distribution from the perspective of import categories opening of consumer goods.This paper focuses on the consumer welfare distribution effect in the import trade liberalization from other regions in Taiwan,based on the perspective of tariff reduction.Therefore,this paper constructs the basic theoretical analysis framework of the impact of import tariff reduction of consumer goods on the distribution of consumer welfare.The analysis shows that import tariff reduction of consumer goods will affect consumer prices and wages,and then affect consumer welfare.Due to the coexistence of consumer heterogeneity and labor heterogeneity,the impact of different consumers may be different.And the change of family welfare is determined by the impact of expenditure and income channels.The import tariff reduction of consumer goods will directly or indirectly affect consumer prices,and affect labor wages through product prices,technological change and other factors,and the impact on consumer prices and wages is uncertain.Based on the basic theoretical analysis framework of the impact of import tariff reduction of consumer goods on the consumer welfare distribution,this paper conducts a qualitative and quantitative analysis on the consumer welfare distribution effect in Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from other regions.The results show that:first,the import tariff of Taiwan’s consumer goods from other regions is negatively correlated with consumer price,Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from other regions is not conducive to the welfare of families at the expense level,and even less conducive to the welfare of low-income families;Secondly,there is a positive correlation between Taiwan’s household wage income and consumer price,Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from other regions is conducive to family welfare at the income level,and more conducive to the welfare of highincome families;Thirdly,the total welfare effect of Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from other regions is positive on average,and it is more conducive to the welfare of high-income families.In addition,Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from other regions is more conducive to the welfare of high-income families,which will lead to the expansion of family wage income gap.However,due to the adjustment of "visible hand",Taiwan’s family income gap has not expanded significantly.Considering the particularity of the low degree of the import categories opening of consumer goods from the mainland,and the importance of the mainland as the main source of Taiwan’s consumer goods import.This paper makes a simple analysis on the consumer welfare distribution effect in Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from the mainland,based ot the perspective of the categories’opening of consumer goods import from the mainland.The analysis shows that the degree of the import categories opening of consumer goods from the mainland is relatively low,the dependence degree of consumer goods import from the mainland is high,and Taiwan’s consumer goods imports from the mainland are mainly high-tech intensive products.For a long time,Taiwan has adopted restrictive import trade policies to the mainland,and the degree of the import categories opening of consumer goods from the mainland is relatively low.Therefore,Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from the mainland has little impact on the welfare of Taiwanese consumers.The degree of Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from the mainland is not high,and there are relatively high restrictions on the import of consumer goods from the mainland,which makes the Taiwanese people have a limited sense of gain in Taiwan’s opening of the consumer goods import from the mainland.Taiwan still has high restrictions on the consumer goods import from the mainland,which limits the improvement of consumer welfare by Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from the mainland.Taiwanese consumers are "insensitive" to Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from the mainland.Taiwan’s import trade liberalization is conducive to the improvement of family welfare.However,due to the impact of anti-globalization wave and other factors in recent years,the process of Taiwan’s trade liberalization has slowed down,resulting in the small improvement of consumer welfare caused by import trade liberalization in Taiwan.In view of the fact that the degree of Taiwan’s import trade liberalization from other regions has been relatively high,in the future,in terms of trade liberalization reform,in order to improve consumer welfare,Taiwan needs to further promote the reform of import trade liberalization from the mainland,including opening more categories of consumer goods to import from the mainland.