The Impact Of The Change Of Intermediate Tariff On The Embedding Level Of Global Value Chain In The Textile And Clothing Industry

With the deepening of global economic integration,an international production cooperation network based on global value chain has been formed.After the implementation of RCEP,about 90% of the trade in goods and a higher level of openness in service trade and investment will be achieved among member countries than in the WTO.The trade level of the textile and clothing industry of member countries will be significantly improved.From a visual point of view,the RCEP tariff reduction and the country of origin accumulation policy have significantly reduced the trade costs of foreign trade enterprises,making the tariff reduction of intermediate goods cover more countries and products.From a deeper perspective,the decentralized production of global products means that intermediate inputs need to cross borders many times before the final products enter the consumer market.The RCEP intermediate tariff reduction policy reduces the cumulative cost of product taxes before the final products reach the hands of consumers,and promotes the depth and breadth of enterprises’ participation in the global value chain.Based on the tariff data provided by WITS-TRAINS and the trade data provided by UNCOMTRADE,this paper matches the intermediate goods with the same HS code,and calculates the tariff of textile and clothing intermediate goods of each member country of RCEP from the industry level.At the same time,based on the forward and backward participation data of the global value chain of the textile and clothing industry provided by UIBE-OECD,this paper calculates the participation level of the global value chain of the textile and clothing industry of the RCEP member countries and the position index of the division of labor in the global value chain,and finally explores the impact of the tariff reduction of the textile and clothing intermediate products of the RCEP member countries on the embedding degree of the global value chain of the industry in 2009-2018.The research results of this paper show that: first,since ASEAN launched RCEP in2012,the tariffs on domestic textile and garment intermediates of RCEP member countries have continued to decline,and a few countries have achieved zero tariffs on all imports of textile and garment intermediates of other member countries before 2021;Second,since 2009,except for Malaysia,the participation index of global value chain in the textile and clothing industry of RCEP member countries has been on the rise as a whole,and the division of labor status index of global value chain has been different among different countries;Third,the reduction of tariffs on textile and garment intermediates in RCEP member countries is conducive to the improvement of the participation level of the textile and garment industry in the value chain of the whole region;Fourth,the impact of the changes in the intermediate tariff of textile and clothing in the RCEP member countries on the level of the division of labor in the global value chain of the member countries has national differences.The decline in the intermediate tariff of developed countries has promoted the level of the division of labor in the global value chain of the industry,while the decline in the intermediate tariff of developing countries has restrained the level of the division of labor in the global value chain of the industry.Based on the research conclusion,this paper puts forward six suggestions for the upgrading of the global industrial chain of China’s textile and clothing industry under the framework of RCEP,including attaching importance to the construction and implementation of RCEP,paying attention to the international competition of intermediate products,speeding up the process of high-end manufacturing,promoting domestic demand to drive economic growth,building an open business environment,maintaining WTO rules,and resolutely resisting trade protectionism.