Under The Sino-US Trade Imbalance Within Product Manufacturing Division Perspective Study

Intra-product specialization is the deepening development of international division of labor, which is a new form of division of labor based on the production processes or sections. The division and trade pattern of the world is profoundly changed by the intra-product specialization and trade. More and more countries are gradually integrating into the global production network system. Each country actively participates in the international division of labor and production and gains trade benefit according to its own comparative advantage in the production processes.Under this background, the thesis did theoretical and empirical research on the impact of intra-product specialization on Sino-US manufacturing industry trade imbalance. Firstly, the thesis reviewed the relevant research on the intra-product specialization and trade. Secondly, it analyzed the intermediate goods trade on Sino-US manufacturing industry. The thesis also took the East Asia into account and analyzed the impact of intra-product specialization in the East Asia on Sino-US trade imbalance. Theoretical analysis shows that China exports a large number of intermediate goods to the United States while it imports a lot of intermediate goods from Japan, Korea and other countries in the East Asia. Intra-product specialization causes the Sino-US manufacturing industry trade imbalance. Finally, an econometric model was set up to study the impact of intra-product specialization on Sino-US manufacturing industry trade imbalance. It estimated the influence degree of intra-product specialization on Sino-US manufacturing industry trade imbalance by using a panel data. Empirical study shows that the intra-product specialization and trade between China and the United States and that between China and East Asia region both had an impact on Sino-US trade imbalance. The intra-product specialization and trade between China and the United States made a greater impact on the Sino-US trade imbalance.