Foreign Trade Competitiveness Research Articles

THE IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL PERFORMANCE ON FOREIGN TRADE CONCENTRATION AND COMPETITIVENESS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIAN AGRICULTURE

Analysing the impact of agricultural performance on foreign trade concentration and competitiveness defines an important step in identifying the opportunities, challenges and proactive measures in designing a functional and marked based agricultural model. The scope of this study is to investigate the evolution of Romania’s the foreign trade competitiveness and its concentration on main destinations during 2007–2016. In this context, in the paper are identified and investigated some of the competitiveness’ mutations arisen from the Romania’s trade flows concentration and restructuration in relation with 26 of the European Union member states. It was used a unique dataset on agro -food trade output and concentration across EU countries to construct measures of trade competitiveness. The results obtained suggest the existence of a dual relationship of the Romanian agriculture competitiveness and its dependence on the EU economic area, by the concentration of the commercial relationships.

Competitiveness of Mutual Agrarian Foreign Trade of the Post-Soviet Countries

The paper is an analysis of foreign trade of the post-Soviet countries conducted for years 2000 and 2015. The aims of the research were thus twofold: to examine the bilateral trade scheme for the selected countries and to attempt to explore relations between competitiveness and thus the position of the agricultural commodity aggregates. The UN COMTRADE database was used. In the monitored countries, there is continuous growth of the commodity aggregate 0 - Food and live animals, which is strongly influenced by the commodity sub-aggregates 02 - Dairy products and bird eggs, S3-04 - Cereals and cereal preparations. The first phase entailed calculations of individual indicators of mutual trade (RCA, LFI, GLI and coverage of import). Subsequently, the indicators were used as input variables for further analyses. Using RCA and LFI indexes, the commodity aggregates were classified into 4 quadrants according to their position within the comparative advantage and competitiveness. Using a cluster analysis (based on Euclidian distance and Ward's method), individual commodity aggregates for the monitored countries were divided into groups based on the values of GLI, LFI and coverage of import. The groups were subsequently characterized for individual countries. Based on the conducted analyses, it can be stated that hypothesis 0 about the non-existence of significant changes within the group structure does not reflect the reality. Between 2000 and 2015, substantial changes occurred in terms of dividing the commodity aggregates into groups based on their common characteristics with regard to foreign trade. In addition, the diversity within foreign trade decreased between 2000 and 2015, and more commodity aggregates attain values around or below the average of a given aggregate. When assessing the intra-industry trade, it can be stated that some commodity aggregates can be regarded as important only with regard to Azerbaijan, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. In these countries, this phenomenon is most frequently evident in the commodity aggregates Beverages or Vegetables and fruit.

OCENA POZYCJI KONKURENCYJNEJ POLSKI W HANDLU SKÓRAMI FUTERKOWYMI I ICH WYROBAMI NA TLE KRAJÓW UE

The presented article attempts to assess the competitiveness of foreign trade in fur skins and their products in Poland against a background of the European Union countries between 2005 and 2016. The data used for the research came from the statistical yearbooks of the Central Statistical Office, and the study was supported by methods of descriptive and comparative analysis. It also used the data of the International Trade Center (ITC) and Faostat database. The results of the research confirmed that Poland has a competitive advantage in foreign trade in fur skins and their products in 2005 as well as in 2008-2011 and 2013-2016. In addition, Poland recorded one of the highest trade coverage ratios between 2010 and 2017 among the EU countries. It was found that, recently, Poland noted one of the fastest rates of competitive advantage in this respect, and the concentration of production in Poland may strengthen its role in the international arena, and has more and more impact on the economic situation of producers operating in the industry.

Competitiveness of Uzbek agrarian foreign trade – different regional trade blocs and the most significant trade partners

Competitiveness of Uzbek agrarian foreign trade – different regional trade blocs and the most significant trade partners

Liner shipping bilateral connectivity and its impact on South Africa’s bilateral trade flows

Since shipping connectivity reduces trade costs, which in turn improves trade, this paper aims to analyse the short- and long-run impacts of the liner shipping bilateral connectivity on South Africa’s trade flows. In addition to connectivity, measured by five separate components, we also consider the effects on trade of sailing distances, the direct (air) distance and the gross domestic product (GDP) of 142 trading partners. We apply the quasi-maximum likelihood method to estimate the parameters of a dynamic panel data model. The results show that GDP, the number of common direct connections and the level of competition have a positive and significant effect on trade flows, while the number of transshipments and the direct and sailing distances have a negative and significant impact, both in the short and long run. The estimated long-run effects are stronger than the short-run effects, suggesting that shippers take time to adjust their demand to changes in connectivity. The variable maximum ship size does not seem to have a positive bearing on trade, suggesting that countries may not need to try to accommodate ever larger ships to maintain their foreign trade competitiveness.

The Qualitative Trade Competitiveness of China in IT Industry: A Comparison to Korea and USA

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the trade structure and competitiveness of China’s information technology (IT) industry in comparison to that of Korea and the United States, particularly in terms of quality. Design/methodology/approach - Indices such as trade specialization index (TSI), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), and Market Comparative Advantage (MCA) are used. Further, an Intra-industry Trade (IIT) index is used to analyze qualitative changes in horizontal intra-industry trade and intraindustry trade of high- and low-quality goods. Findings - China’s IT industry has a comparative competitive advantage over that of Korea and the United States, and mainly exports goods of inferior quality and imports goods of superior quality. Further, China’s horizontal intra-industry trade has been decreasing, while its vertical intra-industry trade has been increasing and vertical trade of inferior quality goods outweighs that of superior quality goods. This shows that China is rapidly catching up with Korea and the United States, even though its qualitative competitiveness has not significantly improved. Research limitations/implication - This study has academic and political implications, as it analyzes changes in China’s IT trade competitiveness. However, it is somewhat limited as factors determining qualitative aspects has not been considered. Originality/value - Most studies aggregate analyses of export competitiveness using methodologies such as TSI, RCA, and market share. However, the focus of these methods is price competitiveness. Hence, an examination of the objective and qualitative trade competitiveness of China’s IT industry is necessary. this study the trade structure and quantitative competitiveness of the industry by analyzing intra-industry trade focusing on the quality of competitiveness. Therefore, the changes in China s IT industry in the USA and Korea and in foreign trade competitiveness and quality competitiveness are clarified. The results show that the academic and policy implications of these changes in the IT industry will be a useful resource. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis.

An analysis of foreign trade competitiveness of the forest-based sector in Turkey

Bu çalışma, Türkiye ekonomisinde dikkate değer bir yeri olan ormana dayalı sektörler (forest-based sector)”in Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK) tarafından açıklanan 1995-2009 arası yıllık ihracat ve ithalat verileri kullanılarak hesaplanan başlıca rekabetçilik endeksleri yardımıyla sektörün dış ticaretteki rekabet gücünü analiz etmiştir. Sektörler Standart Uluslararası Ticaret Sınıflandırması (SITC) Rev.3 çerçevesinde 2 haneli olarak 5 alt sektörde incelenmiştir. Bu sektörler sırasıyla; ağaç mantarı, odun ve kereste (SITC kodu: 24), kağıt hamuru ve kullanılmış kağıt (SITC kodu: 25), ağaç mantar ve ahşap mamul (SITC kodu: 63), kağıt-karton (SITC kodu: 64) ve mobilya (SITC kodu: 82) olarak ele alınmıştır. Rekabet gücü endeksleme sonuçları göstermektedir ki Türkiye’de mobilya sektörü, artan küresel rekabete rağmen dış ticarette dikkate değer düzeyde rekabetçi bir durumdadır. Levha üretimi ağırlıklı ağaç mantar ve ahşap mamul sektörünün ise rekabet gücü çok yüksek olmamakla birlikte bu güç yıllar itibariyle giderek belirginleşme eğilimindendir. Ağaç mantarı, odun ve kereste sektörü, kağıt hamuru ve kullanılmış kağıt sektörü ve kağıt-karton sektörlerinde ise rekabet gücü bulunmamaktadır. Çalışmanın son kısmında orman dayalı sektörlerin dış ticarette rekabet gücünü artırmaya yönelik çeşitli önerilerde bulunulmuştur.

Analysis of Hubei’s Foreign Trade Structure

The purposes of this paper are to research the status quo of the foreign trade in Hubei, analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the foreign trade, explore ways to further expand the advantages and make up for the shortcomings, and propose countermeasures to improve the foreign trade competitiveness. The countermeasures include improving the quality of export products, strengthening the export of pillar industries, increasing the added value of products, accelerating the export of high-tech products, exploring emerging markets, attracting investment from enterprises, promoting policy docking, optimizing trade and logistics, guiding private enterprise innovation, and providing policy support.

Changes in the Czech agrarian foreign trade competitiveness - different groups of partners' specifics

The territorial and commodity structure of the Czech agrarian foreign trade underwent significant changes over the last fifteen years. These changes affected not only the structure, but also the value, volume, unit prices and competitiveness. The presented paper provides the basic overview of the individual significant changes. The main goal of the paper is to specify changes in the area of the Czech agrarian foreign trade competitiveness. This competitiveness is analysed not only in relation to global markets, but it is also analysed in relation to different groups of countries. Differences in competiveness are analysed in relation to the European Union (EU 28), the Commonwealth of Independent Countries, other European countries, the OECD members, and developing countries. In addition, competitiveness is also analysed in two specific dimensions. The agricultural market represents a very specific entity. However, the global merchandise trade is becoming more and more liberalized internationally and the regional agricultural markets are still being affected by a significant protectionism. The individual countries and certain clusters of countries are applying an intensive agricultural market protection. The result of these policies is a distortion of the agricultural trade. This distortion is also affecting the individual countries mutual competitiveness. While one country could be competitive in relation to one partner, in relation to other partner, the competitiveness could be limited. The paper clarifies and analyses the differences that exist in the competitiveness of the Czech agrarian trade in relation to the above mentioned groups of countries. The analysis is conducted utilizing the symmetric revealed comparative advantage index and the Lafay index, the Trade Balance index and the product mapping. The Czech agrarian trade territorial structure has become more concentrated, the commodity structure became more diversified. Czech trade is quite competitive especially in relation to the European countries, the competitiveness in relation to other territories is limited. The significant weakness of the Czech agrarian trade is its low ability to generate added value.

Modelowanie dynamicznych zależności pomiędzy bezpośrednimi inwestycjami zagranicznymi i handlem wewnątrzgałęziowym w Polsce

In the economic literature there are numerous theories explaining the relationship between the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign trade. The most frequently discussed issue is whether direct investment strengthens or restricts foreign trade. Similar questions can be formulated with regard to direct foreign investment and intra-industry trade and its types: vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade. The relationships between these variables are relatively rarely studied, but they can provide additional insights into the influence of FDI on the structure and competitiveness of foreign trade. The paper proposes to examine the relationship between FDI and different types of intra-industry trade using the vector error correction model (VECM). To investigate the feedback between these variables, the results of the impulse response functions and forecast error variance decomposition are analysed. The results will be presented using the example of Poland.

Analysis of export competitiveness of Romanian agricultural products

The term of competitiveness has different meanings and uses in various areas. The concept of competitiveness is used in the technological field, in the consumer goods market, in the international trade. By its characteristics, competitiveness is generated and analysed at microeconomic level. This paper aims to analyse the competitiveness of Romanian foreign trade with products at European level and to establish the place in the European hierarchy.

Changes in the business model for Spanish fresh tomato trade

The business model applied to the fresh tomato trade from Almería is well known in Spain and abroad. The changes in demand are forcing export companies to change their trade strategies to become or remain competitive. The purpose of this paper is to know the business structure and its export dynamics in addition to the changes in trade strategies made by companies in Almería during the 2009-2013 period. The methodology is based on the Herfindahl-Hirshman index and the foreign trade competitiveness index, whereas the congruence analysis is based on Pearson’s correlation coefficients and the RV coefficient. We have also applied the dual multiple factor analysis to verify changes made to the trade policy in leading businesses between two periods or scenarios. The research shows that export-driven companies behave as a moderately concentrated structure and there is an increase in the number of exporters. The competitiveness map for Almería reveals the sector’s trend with regard to the most important markets. We have verified the changes made to their trade strategy to adjust to changes in foreign trade between the 2008/09 and 2012/13 campaigns. Finally, it can be pointed out that, in the analyzed period, changes in the business model for fresh tomato trade of Almería have not been significant, being its structure of moderate concentration. In addition, the great majority of variations in strategies of companies to adapt to the competitive environment have been made by leading companies.

Research on the Realistic Obstacles and Countermeasures of the Development of International Factoring in China under the Economic Globalization

Factoring business is a mature and effective method of settlement and financing in the world, and has been widely used in the export trade of today's world because of its own advantages. At present, the competition of international trade has changed from the price of products, the quality of competition to the comprehensive competition of trade mode. International trade has been a major engine of China's economic development, improving the competitiveness of China's foreign trade, seeking to adapt to the characteristics of our country and conform to the international trend of trade settlement, is a matter of economic overall situation. This paper explains the basic theory about international factoring, analyzes the deficiency existing in our country's international factoring industry talent and single product, target customer selection dislocation and other obstacles to development, and from strengthening government functions, put forward corresponding strategies to improve the quality of personnel.

Credit Constraints and the Quality of Export Commodities in modern China: Taking Sino-foreign Tea Trade as an Example

In recent years, the increase in the quality of export commodities has become the urgent needs to improve the competitiveness of China's foreign trade. This paper starts on the analysis of the relationship among market participants in tea trade, explores the key barriers to the quality of tea export in modern China, and then builds a two-stage dynamic game model to analyze the effect of Ch'a Chans as the trade and financial intermediaries on the tea quality improvement. It finds that Ch'a Chans are the determinant affecting the quality of tea export in modern China, but the conflict between the private interests of Ch'a Chans and the tea quality improvement has become one of the main obstacles. The reasons basically lie in that it is difficult to form a long-run cooperation relationship between Ch'a Chans and tea manufacturers, thereby leading to the obtainment of only short-term loans from Ch'a Chans by tea manufacturers to ensure the supply of tea quantity and a lack of long-term loans to improve the quality of tea export. Furthermore, it conducts a more comprehensive historical analysis of reasons for the poor quality of Chinese tea export in modern times, and argues that the quality of tea export is subject to tea manufacturers'lack of incentives to improve the tea quality, and is hampered by multi credit constraints between intermediaries and financial system. In addition, a lack of the provision of powerful industry and fiscal policies in the late Qing Dynasty is also a restriction factor. The conclusions provide some enlightenment to the transformation of current China's foreign trade from quantity to quality and the enhancement of the supply-front reform to some extent.

Assessment of milk production competitiveness of the Slovak Republic within the EU-27 countries

Raw cow milk represents one of the most important commodity in the agricultural market. The Slovak agro-food foreign trade is characterized by a substantial increase in the commodity trade, monitoring of competitiveness is therefore very important. The aim of the article was to evaluate the current situation of breeding processes in the cattle production with focus to the raw cow milk production and dairy products; and to compare the competitiveness of the domestic supply with the EU-27 countries. To quantify the evaluation of competitiveness, mathematical and statistical methods were used. Indicators of the exposed comparative advantage (RCA); the competitiveness growth index (RCA 1); the net trade performance index (RCA 2); the indicator of relative import penetration (RMA); the indicator of relative export advantages (RXA); and the indicator of relative business advantages (RTA) were calculated. The research of the foreign trade competitiveness parameters of the aggregated group Milk (RCA, RCA 1, RCA 2, RMA, RXA; and RTA) showed that the Slovak Republic has a comparative advantage among the EU-27 countries in the commodity 0401 (milk and cream, not concentrated or containing added sugar or other sweeteners), in all other monitored commodities, a comparative disadvantage was determined. Based on the research, the ideas and recommendations for the agricultural policy and for the milk processors were formulated.

Key factors of foreign trade competitiveness: Comparison of the EU and BRICS by factor and cluster analysis

International competitiveness is influenced by globalization processes in the world economy. This process changes the comparative advantages of each country and thus the shares of individual countries in world trade. BRICS countries have quickly strengthened their influence in international trade, and thus the European Union must face new pressure in competitiveness from their side. The aim of this paper is to define key factors of foreign trade competitiveness by an application of factor analysis and identify countries with similar characteristics of competitiveness factors by an application of cluster analysis. Factor and cluster analysis contain indicators of foreign trade which describe the driving forces of competitiveness, also in terms of long-term potentiality, and those which are direct or indirect outcomes of a competitive society and economy. Based on the results of the factor analysis, it is possible to classify the evaluated territories according to the level of foreign trade advancement by cluster analysis.

The competitiveness of foreign trade and the principles of social economy – the example of Poland

The article shows changes of competitiveness in the Polish foreign trade with the EU countries in the conditions of social economy. There is no possibility to find data for enterprises using elements of social economy; this is why the conclusions are estimated only. These enterprises do not usually work in the sector of foreign trade which is only a small part of their activity. Improvement of competitiveness can only result from using these conditions over a long time, as a result of using so-called soft factors of competitiveness.

The Research of the Foreign Trade Competitiveness in Dynamic Approach on the Example of Poland

One of the study proposals of the intensity of the intra-industry trade was presented Glejser et al. (1982). It is competitive with many foreign trade indicators which do not take account of the country specialization in import and export and do not refl ect adequately the effects of trade imbalances. On based the variance of the export and import specialization indicators Glejser et al. (1982) created a tool that overcomes these shortcomings. The proposed method, however, was not equipped with an appropriate statistical and econometric tools, which greatly limits its practical usefulness. This article attempts to improve the method and test it on the example of foreign trade in Poland.

The Empirical Analysis on the Influence of CO2Emission Regulation on the Export Transformation of Chinese Manufacturing Industries

Cheng, H.; Li, F., and Mao, Q., 2015. The empirical analysis on the influence of CO2 emission regulation on the export transformation of Chinese manufacturing industries.Since China has begun to implement stringent CO2 emission regulation, foreign trade competitiveness suffers from great impact. Under fixed emission regulation concerning different emission distribution methods, there exist differences in effects on export competitiveness as well as industrial transformation and upgrading. In this paper, based on the bilateral panel data of China and 32 trading partners during 1992 and 2011, model of multiple panel regression is applied to conduct empirical analysis on the influence of CO2 emission regulation. The results show that the enhancement of CO2 emission regulation is conducive to the improvement of the export competitiveness of Chinese manufacturing industries. Meanwhile, there are different influence degrees of regulation on various industries, among which the clean industry is the most influenced by the regulation. As for various manufacturing industries, there are three distribution policies, namely, emission distribution on the basis of output, average distribution on the basis of unit emission and accumulative distribution on the basis of unit emission. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of the influences of these three policies on export competitiveness, transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacturing industries would be compared so as to determine which distribution policy is most beneficial. The results illustrate that “average CO2 emission distribution on the basis of unit emission” makes the greatest contribution to the export transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacturing industries, and it is in conformity with development need of Chinese trade at current phase. The innovation of the paper lies in its adoption of bilateral trade data to specifically study the influence of CO2 emission regulation on trade competitiveness. The attention is specially attached to the performance differences of different emission distribution policies in trade competitiveness, which is the further exploration on the basis of previous studies.

China's WTO Membership and the Non-Market Economy Status: discrimination and impediment to China's foreign trade

This article provides a Chinese perspective on the terms of China's WTO accession, highlighting the negative impact of some discriminatory conditions that China accepted in order to join the WTO on its foreign trade and global competitiveness in the last decade. The author uses the non-market economy status of China as a case study to support the argument that these discriminatory conditions imposed on China upon accession have not only impeded the healthy development of China's foreign trade, but also violated the ‘non-discrimination’ principle of the WTO.