A Comparative Analysis Of Export Competitiveness Of China And Germany’s Medium-Tech Manufactured Products

On the basis of different technical content,manufactured products can be divided into three types:high-tech,medium-tech and low-tech manufactured products.The medium-tech manufactured products,which consist of land vehicles,aircrafts,ships,chemical products,process machinery,metal articles and other important products,are of great significance in one country’s industrial chains.From the perspective of export competitiveness,this paper studies the difference of export products between countries,so as to reflect countries’ different industrial development levels.China and Germany are both important exporters of medium-tech manufactured products.China has huge amount of medium-tech manufactured product export,which exceeded 550 billion dollars in 2016,while Germany achieves merited reputation for high-quality manufactured products,such as transport vehicles,process machinery and chemical products with world-famous brands.Making comparison between China and Germany’s export competitiveness of medium-tech manufactured products deepens our cognition of China’s medium-tech industrial development level.Because U.S.is an important export destination for both China and Germany,this thesis is able to analyze and evaluate both countries’ export competitiveness more precisely without losing typical meaning by focusing on American market data.This thesis consists of five parts.In the first part,the thesis introduces the selected topic’s background and research significance,defines the scope of export competitiveness and medium-tech manufactured products which include the 84th,87th and some other chapters in HS codes.The second part is about domestic and foreign literature review.The paper reviews classic international trade theories,explicates the background,empirical application and shortcomings of related indexes and models,such as revealed comparative advantage index(RCA index),constant market share model(CMS model)and product quality vertical index(PQV index).Through holistic analysis and local analysis,the third and fourth parts analyze China and Germany’s export competitiveness empirically from export structure,market share,comparative advantage,product quality and other perspectives.The fifth part summarizes the results,discusses existing problems and proposes industrial policy recommendations.China’s medium-tech manufactured product export volumes on US market exceeded Germany in 2006,which reached 110 billion dollars in 2016.China’s ratio of export dependence on medium-tech manufactured product is lower than Germany’s ratio and export structure is quite different from that of Germany which is in more accordance with US.’s import structure.China’s medium-tech manufactured product market penetration rate in US.is higher than that of Germany and CMS model indicates the effects of product competitiveness on China’s export growth is basically higher than that of Germany on the same period.However,RCA index and CA index indicate Germany has higher competitiveness than China during the whole inspection period and China has not shortened the gap observably.Therefore,there exists contradictive conclusions.Since trade volumes could be effected by certain country’s GDP,this thesis regards RCA and CA index as competitiveness standards which can reflect reality more precisely.In order to provide a micro-foundation for total discussion,this thesis then examines both countries’ export product price and quality on American market.Based on PQV index analysis,when products are heterogeneous,Germany’s products always have better quality than China’s while China can attain price dominance among homogeneous products.The difference of product quality between China and Germany has not changed obviously.Since Germany owns more high-quality products,this paper concludes that Germany has higher export competitiveness than China in terms of economic efficiency,which is in accordance with the results of RCA and CA analysis.China relies on homogeneous products with lower price to increase export and market share while Germany relies on heterogeneous products to maintain export growth and constant market share.The two countries’ export structure,target market and trade pattern are distinct.To enhance export competitiveness of medium-tech manufactured products,firstly,Chinese government should promote free and fair international trade between countries and keep opposition to trade protectionism to provide more stable and sustainable trade environment;secondly,China should optimize its export structure,support business-orientated research,establish institutional arrangements to encourage innovation and corporate alliances to make full use of information and resources,develop vocational education which should keep close cooperation with enterprises and universities.In summary,China should make efforts to change medium-tech manufactured export products from relying on price and quantity advantage to quality advantage.