| The signing of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP)Agreement has brought new development opportunities to Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone featuring the construction of the whole oil and gas industry chain.From the perspective of trade facilitation,this paper discusses the impact of trade facilitation on oil and gas trade between the Zone and RCEP countries,and analyzes the effect of the agreement on oil and gas trade between the two sides whilst combining the relevant provisions of RCEP trade facilitation.This research expands the theoretical research dimensions of trade facilitation,and provides practical significance for giving full play to the economic effect of RCEP agreement,thus fueling the development of oil and gas industry chain in Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone and safeguarding national energy security.First of all,according to the current layout of oil and gas industry chain in Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone,the scope of oil and gas trade is divided from the perspective of product chain.On this basis,the development status of oil and gas trade between Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone and RCEP member countries before and after the establishment of the zone from 2012 to 2021 is systematically analyzed.Secondly,by constructing the trade facilitation indicator system,the trade facilitation level between Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone and other 14 RCEP member countries before and after the establishment of the zone from 2012 to 2019 is estimated via principal component analysis method.Furthermore,based on the qualitative analysis and quantitative empirical analysis of RCEP trade facilitation provisions,this paper studies the impact of trade facilitation on bilateral oil and gas trade.Finally,taking trade facilitation as a breakthrough point,this paper puts forward relevant policy suggestions on deepening bilateral oil and gas industry cooperation,helping to build Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone into an international oil-gas trade center and better safeguarding national energy security.The results show that: First,the trade volume of oil and gas between Zhejiang Free Trade Zone and RCEP member countries has been increasing rapidly in recent years,and its downstream oil and gas products have strong competitiveness within the RCEP scope,but the competitiveness of upstream and midstream oil and gas products is relatively weak.Second,the overall level of bilateral trade facilitation is for the better from 2012 to 2019.Besides,the trade facilitation has a significant impact on the bilateral oil and gas trade volume—Every 1% increase in the level of trade facilitation contributes 4.08% increase in the bilateral oil and gas trade volume.Third,the RCEP customs regime,rules of origin,financial services,e-commerce and trade in goods can boost oil and gas trade between the two sides.Based on the conclusions above,this paper proposes to deepen the reform of customs system for oil and gas trade,accelerate the construction of oil and gas infrastructure,establish RCEP oil-gas economic and trade demonstration zone,and build an oil-gas financial service support system. |
