A Research On The Competitiveness,Complementarity And Export Potential In Services Trade Between China And RCEP Countries

Trade in services is an important way of expressing a country’s economic strength and international competitive advantage.In recent years,trade in services has developed rapidly around the world,and trade in services has become an important driving force for economic growth.At present,China’s economy has transformed from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development.Trade in services is an area where China’s international trade and economic and trade cooperation urgently needs to be strengthened and enhanced,and is of great significance in building a new development pattern.The formal signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement(RCEP)means the completion of the world’s largest free trade area,and the higher level of openness and lower trade barriers of the agreements signed by the RCEP countries provide favourable conditions for the development of trade in services.Therefore,grasping and utilising the competitive and complementary nature of service trade between China and RCEP countries,stimulating the potential of China’s service trade exports and promoting the development of service trade in the relevant countries is an important issue facing the current development process.By analysing the current situation of service trade between China and the RCEP countries,this paper finds that the total import and export of service trade of each country is on a growing trend,with China’s total service trade taking up a larger share of the world market and other countries taking up a smaller share.Some countries have a persistent trade deficit,such as China,Japan,Korea and Indonesia,where imports of services trade are greater than exports,and a small number of countries have alternating trade surpluses and trade deficits.According to the results of the Index of Comparative Advantage,the Index of Trade Complementarity,the Index of Trade Competitiveness and the Index of Market Similarity,it is found that most countries have well-developed industries with outstanding advantages,but there are also industries that are underdeveloped and relatively backward in terms of competitiveness,and the development of trade in services is uneven,and the structure of trade in services in each country needs to be improved.China’s competitive advantage is mainly reflected in construction services and transport services,and the obvious shortcoming is financial services.In addition,this paper establishes a stochastic frontier gravity model to empirically analyse the export potential and trade efficiency of China’s service trade to RCEP countries,concluding that the economic aggregates of both trading countries,common culture,degree of market dominance,belonging to ASEAN and the level of service trade in the importing country can promote China’s service trade exports,while population,geographical distance and the level of infrastructure in the importing country can hinder China’s service trade exports.By comparing the trade potential,it is found that China’s service trade efficiency with ASEAN countries is generally higher than that of Japan,South Korea,Australia and New Zealand,while China’s trade efficiency with Indonesia,South Korea and Japan is generally on a downward trend,indicating that China’s service trade efficiency with countries such as Japan and South Korea is low and the service trade potential needs to be further explored.Finally,based on the relevant research results,countermeasures and suggestions for optimising trade in services between China and RCEP countries are put forward from the perspectives of strengthening bilateral connectivity,promoting reform and opening up of the financial sector,and utilising relevant agreements.