The Influence Of The Depth Of Free Trade Agreements On The Changes In The GVC Position Of China’s Manufacturing Industry

Since the reform and opening up,China has gradually embedded itself into the global value chain division system by virtue of its advantage of low-cost production factors.After China is embedded in the global value chain,it has become the world’s largest commodity exporter in terms of foreign trade and the world’s factory.However,under the circumstance that the cost of production factors is gradually increasing and the level of scientific and technological innovation has not achieved significant results,China’s manufacturing industry faces the risk of "low-end locking" and "crowding out",and stays at the downstream level of the global value chain for a long time.In this context,the signing of free trade agreements with other countries has become a proactive and responsive way.The 17 th CPC National Congress elevated the building of the free trade zone to a national strategy,highlighting its importance.At present,the development of FTA in the world is remarkable,the number of agreements increases sharply,and the content of agreements is constantly deepening.Based on this,the in-depth study on free trade agreement comes into being.In the context of the rapid development of global FTAs and in combination with the actual situation of China’s FTA development,this paper analyzes how the depth of free trade agreement affects the position of global value chain of manufacturing industry through the mechanism of reducing trade cost,improving system and technological innovation through the theory of global value chain and free trade area.At the same time,the relationship between the depth of trade agreement and the position of global value chain in manufacturing industry is discussed through gravity model based on the data of global value chain in OECD database from 2005 to 2018 and the regional trade agreement database of the World Bank.The results show that:(1)the depth of FTA can promote the improvement of the global value chain position of China’s manufacturing industry,and the impact of different dimensions of issues and different types of clauses in trade agreements on the change of the global value chain position of China’s manufacturing industry is different,with heterogeneity;(2)By reducing trade costs and improving institutional environment,FTA can allocate resources and promote technological innovation to gradually enhance the position of global value chain of some industries.(3)The depth of FTA has different impacts on different industries,and technology and capital-intensive manufacturing industries are more affected.(4)The depth of FTAs signed by China has obvious regional characteristics and is affected by national economic development level.The depth of FTAs signed by China with developed countries or regions is higher than that of developing countries,and the depth of trade agreements signed with European,American and Oceanian countries is higher than that of Asian countries.The conclusion of this paper provides some ideas and suggestions for further improving the construction of free trade area,constructing new rules of regional economy and trade,improving the position of global value chain of manufacturing industry and deepening the depth of trade agreement.This paper innovates to a certain extent in terms of research perspective,research object and research content.It takes China’s manufacturing industry as a specific research object,uses GVC status index instead of trade volume index,and focuses on the quality and depth of FTA rather than the quantity level,so that the conclusions of this paper have more reference significance for China’s FTA and manufacturing development.