Trade Facilitation,Export Efficiency And China’s Policy Choice

In recent years,after bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations,traditional tariff and non-tariff barriers have gradually decreased.The institutional and technical barriers in transnational trade have become important factors restricting the trade development.As a"hidden”barrier to market access,the "trade inefficiency" caused by it has begun to be widely concerned by many international organizations and governments,and has prompted people to pay more and more attention to the "trade facilitation" problem that can eliminate these obstacles.In the post-financial crisis era,faced with complex and severe domestic and international environment,the Chinese government proposed an important strategy of "the Belt and Road" to deepen ties with countries along the line and maintain stable development of export trade.However,there are many differences between China and other countries along the line in terms of economic development level,social system,cultural tradition,etc.The level of trade facilitation development in various countries is uneven,and there are potential problems of "trade inefficiency".Based on this,it is of great practical significance to study the current situation of trade facilitation in China and the countries along the line,and how the level of trade facilitation affects China’s export efficiency.Firstly,this paper briefly analyses the relationship between trade facilitation and export efficiency from the theoretical level:improving the level of trade facilitation can reduce the direct and indirect costs of trade transactions,reduce various trade barriers and improve the export trade efficiency of exporters.Changes in trade efficiency will be signaled back to the government of institution to provide targeted advice for further trade facilitation efforts.Secondly,this paper explores the relationship between trade facilitation and export efficiency from the empirical level.In the first step,this paper constructs a trade facilitation evaluation index system using the method of Wislon with infrastructure construction,customs border management,finance and e-commerce,and domestic regulatory environment as the first-level indicators.Then analyses the trade facilitation performance of China and 5 1 countries along "the Belt and Road" in different regions during 2011-2017 from overall and specific aspects.It is found that the overall level of trade facilitation in China and the countries along the line has increased slightly,and the improvement in infrastructure construction and domestic regulatory environment is obvious;The level of trade facilitation in the countries along the line presents the "U" type characteristics of "high on both sides and low in the middle";Countries in different regions also have different performances in different aspects.In the second step,this paper combines stochastic frontier gravity model with inefficiency model,and focuses on the impact of preferential trade arrangements,general trade facilitation indicators,and all levels of indicators on China’s export efficiency from the overall and regional perspectives.The results show that preferential trade arrangements can play a positive role in improving China’s export efficiency;Compared with domestic trade facilitation performance,improving the level of trade facilitation of countries along the line has a more significant impact on improving export efficiency;Overall,the impacts on export efficiency are reduced accordingly in the order of infrastructure construction,domestic regulatory environment,finance and e-commerce,and customs border management;However,the impact of these indicators on export efficiency varies in different regions.In addition,based on the empirical results,this paper also analyses the average value and changes of China’s export efficiency to countries in different regions along the line.Finally,based on the above research results,and with the principle of cooperation with the countries along the line,the corresponding policy ideas are put forward from the following aspects:continue to deepen cooperation under the existing economic organizations,focus on coordination and synchronization,step by step and targeted to promote the trade facilitation process of China and the countries along "the Belt and Road",and pay attention to guarding against risks at the same time.