Construction And Measurement Of Trade Facilitation Evaluation System In Countries Along The Belt And Road

With the development and deepening of economic globalization,the new wave of trade protectionism has emerged.The international trade frictions have intensified,and the reform of trade facilitation is imminent.The Trade Facilitation Agreement reached by the WTO indicates the direction for the development of trade facilitation in all countries.The Chinese government formulated and announced the Belt and Road Initiative to provide a good opportunity for the integration and development of economy and trade along the line of countries.This initiative has actively promoted the realization of trade facilitation in these countries.It is of great theoretical and practical significance to construct a trade facilitation evaluation system for countries along the Belt and Road and measure the level of trade facilitation in these countries.Measuring the level of trade facilitation in countries along the Belt and Road not only promotes the development of economy and trade in these countries,but also serves as a key foothold in promoting global trade facilitation and liberalization.Based on the analysis of the definition of trade facilitation by several international organizations,this article divides trade facilitation into two aspects: domestic factors and transnational factors.It is defined as optimizing the trading environment and simplifying and facilitating trade flows.Based on the analysis of relevant theoretical foundations and existing related literature,the abstract evaluation system is analyzed by mechanism.This paper points out that the mechanism of the construction of trade facilitation evaluation system in countries along the Belt and Road can be specifically decomposed into a conduction mechanism and a feedback function.Eventually,these two static mechanisms constitute the dynamic changes of the evaluation system.The former refers to the Belt and Road evaluation system to build a transmission mechanism for trade facilitation in countries along the route.The latter refers to the feedback effect of the trade facilitation level of these countries on the construction of this evaluation system.Based on the economic and trade environment of these countries and the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative,this paper builds a set of indicators that include four factors——infrastructure,regulatory environment,financial environment,and customs clearance efficiency and 17 secondary indicators.Then,Its weight is determined by the entropy method.According to this evaluation system,the level of trade facilitation in countries along the Belt and Road can be calculated.From the perspectives of the overall scores of these countries,the level of each region,and the scores of these indicators,we find that there are some problems in the process of trade facilitation.These problems are mainly due to imperfect infrastructure mechanisms,unbalanced development of regulatory environment,lack of innovation and breakthrough in financial services,low efficiency in trade clearance,and fewer countries accepting the Trade Facilitation Agreement along the Belt and Road.Finally,in light of these deficiencies,specific development proposals are proposed in five aspects: strengthening infrastructure construction,improving various rules and regulations,deepening financial service innovation and financial cooperation,improving the efficiency of customs clearance,and actively implementing the Trade Facilitation Agreement.