Comparative Research On The International Competitiveness Of Wood Furniture Export Trade Between China And Vietnam

The issue of whether Vietnam can replace China in the world wood furniture market has been widely concerned by furniture associations and academics.From the perspective of international wood furniture trade,China and Vietnam are major players in the international wood forest products market.Vietnam has developed the wood industry into a leading industry in the country,and wood furniture has become its key industry for future development.As the main exporters of international wood furniture,China and Vietnam have close geographical locations,similar factor endowments,and highly overlapping target markets,especially in the main importing regions of wood furniture,namely the European Union and the Asia Pacific region.On the one hand,in the European market,in August 2020,Vietnam signed a bilateral FTA with the EU,reducing the resistance of Vietnamese wood furniture to enter the EU market,which is bound to affect the trade scale and actual trade interests of China’s wood furniture export trade in the EU market.On the other hand,in the Asia-Pacific market,the United States,as a major importer of wood furniture,thanks to the Indo-Pacific strategy and the trade war between China and the United States,the trade scale of Vietnamese wood furniture exports to the United States market has been expanding and the trade value of Vietnamese wood furniture exports to the United States has overtaken that of China in 2020.At the same time,with the growth of the international wood furniture import market demand,the international market share of China’s wood furniture export trade has been declining,while the international market share of Vietnam’s wood furniture export trade has been growing year by year during the same period,and the development momentum is excellent,Vietnam Wood furniture export trade is a growing threat to China’s wood furniture export trade.In addition,the restructuring of the global industrial supply chain has resulted in a large number of international wood furniture companies moving to Vietnam,accelerating the upgrading and re-engineering of the wood furniture industry cluster in Vietnam.Therefore,it is imperative to identify the driving effects and the positioning of the industrial value chain of China’s and Vietnam’s wood furniture export trade in the context of the international export trade pattern,and to explore comprehensively and deeply whether Vietnam can threaten the international status of China’s wood furniture export trade.From a domestic development perspective,China’s development has entered a new normal.Although the economy is slowing down,investment,exports and consumption are still solid pillars of strength driving economic development.General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasised: building a new development pattern with dual domestic and international cycles that promote each other.This new development pattern is proposed according to the changes in China’s development stage,environment and conditions at the current stage,and is a strategic choice to reshape China’s new advantages in international cooperation and competition.Forestry industry as China’s national economic development of the basic type of industry,bearing political,economic,social and ecological and other benefits,and at present China is a large country of wood furniture export trade,not wood furniture export trade power,in order to break through the current development dilemma,to promote the development of forestry industry,to the organic combination of domestic demand and external demand,should focus on the development of wood furniture foreign trade,expand overseas markets,to further the development of China’s wood forest products trade to find a new breakthrough point.In view of this,the research in this paper is guided by the existing research results and international trade theories in the relevant fields,and follows the concept of research from the whole to the part to conduct a systematic and comprehensive comparative study of China and Vietnam’s wood furniture export trade.Firstly,it analyzes the current situation and characteristics of the export trade of wood furniture between China and Vietnam,clarifies the international position of wood furniture between China and Vietnam from an international perspective,and adopts a progressive approach to make a transition to a comparative study of the development status of wood furniture export trade between China and Vietnam.Secondly,according to the development characteristics of wood furniture export trade in China and Vietnam,comparatively study the driving effect of wood furniture export trade between China and Vietnam and conduct in-depth research.Thirdly,according to the analysis results of China and Vietnam wood furniture export driving effect,a decomposition analysis is carried out,and the international competitiveness of China and Vietnam wood furniture export trade is compared from the two parallel dimensions of product and market.Ultimately,targeted development recommendations are proposed based on the contradictions in the analysis results,with a view to promoting the sustainable and high-quality development of China’s wood furniture export trade.The specific findings of the study are as follows.The comparative study on the development status and characteristics of the wood furniture export trade between China and Vietnam shows that: Firstly,the development situation of wood furniture trade was sorted out,and based on social network analysis method,it was concluded that China and Vietnam wood furniture have many connections in the network relationship diagram,and they are in the inner circle.The two countries are in the core position in the international market.Moreover,Vietnam’s position in the international wood furniture import and export trade has risen rapidly,and its trade relations with other countries have been continuously strengthened,and its influence has been greatly improved.Secondly,a comparative study of the development status and characteristics of the wood furniture export trade between China and Vietnam shows that,compared to China,Vietnam’s wood furniture export trade matches the world’s wood furniture import trade to a higher degree,Vietnam’s wood furniture export trade grows faster and the international market distribution is more concentrated,while both China and Vietnam’s wood furniture export trade shows the characteristics of phased development.The comparative study on the driving effects of the wood furniture export trade between China and Vietnam shows that: The impact on export trade of wood furniture in China and Vietnam,from large to small,is competitiveness effect,demand scale effect,structure effect.The index analysis method is used to further decompose the competitiveness effect.From the two parallel dimensions of product and market,it is concluded that the export trade of wood furniture between China and Vietnam has a high degree of similarity,and the export trade of wood furniture in Vietnam has a strong comparative advantage,which is a great threat to the export trade of wood furniture in China.The comparative study on the influencing factors of product competitiveness of wood furniture export trade between China and Vietnam shows that,firstly,the level of economic development,the population and the actual demand of the target market country have a positive driving effect on the product competitiveness of the wood furniture export trade in China and Vietnam,while the population and distance of the exporting country inhibit the product competitiveness of the wood furniture export trade in China and Vietnam.Secondly,in the non-efficiency part of trade,the level of trade facilitation,the quality of financial systems,infrastructure construction,and regional economic cooperation have promoted the improvement of product competitiveness of wood furniture export trade in China and Vietnam to a certain extent,while green trade barriers and exchange rates have inhibited the improvement of product competitiveness of wood furniture export trade in China and Vietnam.However,due to the rise of trade protectionist forces and the limited ability of China and Vietnam to withstand external financial risks at this stage,infrastructure construction needs to be further improved,etc.,the regression results of some indicators of the trade inefficiency term are contrary to expectations,and the construction and development of the trade inefficiency term should be focused on in the future.It also points out that the efficiency of China’s wood furniture export trade is higher than that of Vietnam’s wood furniture export trade,and delineates the international market distribution of China’s and Vietnam’s wood furniture export trade potential.It paves the way for the selection of research objects below.The comparative study on the international market power of wood furniture export trade between China and Vietnam shows that,firstly,the trade volume of wood furniture exports does not fully represent the actual benefits(ie market power)obtained by wood furniture export trade.Secondly,compared with Vietnam,the market power of China’s wood furniture exports to mature market countries and undeveloped market countries is relatively small,while the market power of its exports to fully mature market countries and countries to be tapped is relatively large,the overall international market power of China’s wood furniture export trade is stronger.In addition,Vietnamese wood furniture is more substitutable for Chinese wood furniture,and Vietnam has overtaken the market power of China’s wood furniture exports to major European countries and major Asia-Pacific countries.In summary,combining the results of theoretical and empirical analyses,the development suggestions are put forward in three aspects: ensuring the stable development of wood furniture export trade,improving the product competitiveness of wood furniture export trade and enhancing the market competitiveness of wood furniture export trade,with a view to promoting the high-quality and sustainable development of China’s wood furniture export trade.