In the era of global economic integration, the international competitiveness of industry is undoubtedly the most critical factor for a country's survival and development, and the continuous optimization of industrial structure is the fundamental guarantee of international competitiveness. With the increasing dependence on foreign trade in China, the relationship between industrial upgrading and foreign trade mode is getting closer and closer. This paper first analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the current foreign trade model, gives several directions for the transformation of foreign trade model, and then further discusses the optimization of industrial structure under the guidance of model transformation.
Keywords:: foreign trade comparative advantage industry upgrading
The end of World War II did not bring real peace to the international market, but became a place for developed countries to pursue profits. Many developing countries and regions have always been the "rear areas" of developed countries, and their trade capital is almost only natural resources and cheap labor. China has always been a country with relatively dense resources such as labor and land, and it has not escaped this fate. Looking back on the history of China's foreign trade, it is found that the evolution of China's foreign trade system can be divided into four stages: the first stage is that the state controls trade under the planned economy, and the central government directly manages a few professional trading companies to import and export with mandatory plans; The second stage is from the initial stage of reform and opening up to the beginning of establishing a comprehensive market economic system in 1992. During this period, the market economy was gradually implemented and some trade was opened. The third stage is from 1992 to 200 1. At this time, China's labor force began to flow on a large scale, and international capital and technology began to enter the China market. "Made in China" has mushroomed abroad, and China has begun to reform its trade policy system according to international standards. The fourth stage begins with 200 1 China's accession to the WTO. The most obvious feature of this stage is that China's trade policy system reform has been in line with international standards, China has the characteristics of large market capacity and obvious complementarity with developed countries, and China's benign influence on the world economy has gradually increased.
However, while giving full play to its comparative advantages and increasing its total income, China still backfired in some aspects. First of all, the purpose of China's export-oriented trade strategy is not only to gain comparative advantages, but also to gradually move from the low end of the industrial chain to the high end with foreign capital and high technology as the guide, so as to realize the optimal design of industrial structure. However, due to the implementation of the comparative advantage strategy, all localities pay more attention to the development of labor-intensive industries. In terms of utilizing foreign capital, a large amount of foreign capital is invested in labor-intensive industries, and the labor-intensive products exported by foreign-funded enterprises occupy a large number of quotas in China, which reduces the export of domestic enterprises. In addition, foreign-funded enterprises also compete with domestic enterprises in China for the domestic market. This runs counter to China's original intention of using foreign capital to upgrade its industrial structure. Secondly, the ability of domestic enterprises and industries to transform comparative advantage into competitive advantage is poor. Comparative advantage is a static advantage determined by a country's resource endowment and trade conditions, and it is the basis of competitive advantage, but only when comparative advantage is finally transformed into competitive advantage can real export competitiveness be formed. Only by exerting comparative advantage and competitive advantage at the same time can we win the advantage. With the development of economy and the increase of income in China, the labor cost increases. If we don't cultivate competitive consciousness, mention high-tech content, speed up product upgrading and enhance its competitiveness, the original competitive advantage will be reduced or even transformed into competitive disadvantage, and the original industries with comparative advantages will not necessarily become export industries. Finally, it should be pointed out that China's industrial structure is low in technology, and its export products are not competitive internationally. In the distribution of world trade benefits, due to the low technical content and low added value of China's export products, China's share in export profits is very small. Due to the lack of profit, the domestic export industry cannot expand its scale, improve its technology and enhance its international competitiveness, which in turn brings resistance to the upgrading of the domestic export industry structure. If a large number of labor-intensive products with low demand elasticity are exported for a long time, the country will easily fall into the embarrassing situation of simultaneous growth of exports and poverty. In other words, while exports are growing, export enterprises are struggling.
In order to win the initiative of competition and gain a fair share in the international trade market under the background of globalization, we should improve and perfect the current foreign trade model under the current system. The reason is that the existing relatively backward trade pattern in China has a lot to do with the lack of active and effective macro guidance. In the future, we can't wait for the natural growth of productivity to realize the transformation of trade pattern. In fact, the fierce international competition can't wait. We should take the initiative to start and accelerate the transformation of trade patterns in order to maintain and promote the sustained growth of the national economy. I think we should change the mode from the following aspects:
First, gradually establish an efficient import and export trade model. We should focus on the long-term development of the national economy to optimize the structure of import and export commodities, and pay equal attention to promoting productivity development and improving national welfare in foreign trade. Export trade should get rid of the tendency of simply considering foreign exchange income, pay attention to the international comparison of the utilization efficiency of production resources, increase the gross national value through exports, and let people enjoy more material welfare. Similarly, import trade should also overcome the traditional habit of emphasizing production and neglecting consumption, and gradually pay equal attention to production and consumption. From the perspective of market economy, import and export trade is only a circulation link, and the optimization of resource allocation and the improvement of national welfare are essentially two in one. Only by taking national welfare as one of the main goals of foreign trade can we give full play to the driving role of trade in economic growth and provide a broad space for the growth of foreign trade itself. Only by taking the improvement of national welfare as the basic starting point of trade can we form a more reasonable commodity price relationship and an effective market regulation mechanism, accelerate the accumulation of human capital, and urge foreign trade enterprises to truly put economic benefits first and realize the unity of economic and social benefits.
Second, aim at a comprehensive international competition model. The integration of trade and investment is a major feature of contemporary international economic life. Overseas investment is a key foothold for China goods to further enter the international market. Now is the time to combine China's export trade with overseas investment, and strive for a major breakthrough in the next decade or so. This requires acquiring knowledge from all sides as soon as possible, and Qi Xin will work together to build a strategic commanding height for future participation in international competition. On the other hand, from the perspective of marketing strategy, we should realize the diversification of competitive advantage and the decentralization of the market as soon as possible. While continuing to use the labor-intensive comparative advantage model, vigorously cultivate and expand the export of high-tech products; While attaching importance to the export of materials, vigorously promote the export of labor services and technology; While giving full play to the role of material factors of production, we should strive to form and utilize China's intangible assets. Foreign trade should be truly open in all directions and enhance its influence on global economic development.
Finally, implement a neutral macro-control model. Institutional innovation plays a decisive role in the transformation of trade patterns. The urgent task is to eliminate the discrimination against exports that still exists in practice as soon as possible. The combination of RMB exchange rates and the implementation of a managed floating exchange rate system will have a strong stimulating effect on exports. It is necessary to make this new system enter a benign operation state as soon as possible, and at the same time deepen reforms in other aspects. In the long run, China should adopt the principle of basic balance of import and export trade. As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, as a big country, it is not appropriate to unilaterally advocate export orientation and it is difficult to meet external conditions. In fact, the function of foreign trade is a very special industrial sector, and we should adopt an industrial tilt policy for the development of trade. Except for individual occasions related to national defense, we should cancel the privileges or preferences of departments or regions in foreign trade business, liberalize business, compete on an equal footing, and implement measures to encourage tourism according to export performance. The vitality of market economy comes from competition, which also applies to the development and transformation of trade.
The change of trade pattern has positive guiding significance for the adjustment of industrial structure. We should see that the upgrading of industrial structure is closely related to the change of foreign trade policy, and we should pay attention to the relationship between them in order to achieve the purpose of mutual promotion and prosperity of international trade market and domestic market. This paper holds that we should start from the following aspects:
First of all, trade policy and industrial policy are compatible. Macro and micro economic environment, relaxed innovation environment, effective industrial policy and trade policy are the guarantee to promote industrial upgrading. The reason why the United States is far ahead in the world's high-tech development is because of the deregulation during Reagan and the good industrial policy of the Clinton administration. For example, the first technology policy of the United States is the provision on protecting the rights and interests of inventors and promoting science and technology written directly into the US Constitution. Since the 1980s, the United States has taken a series of measures to require trading countries, especially Japan and European Union countries with similar economic and technological development levels, to open their markets and expand the import of high-tech products such as computers and mobile communication equipment from the United States. In order to encourage American enterprises to export high-tech products, the US government has also set up a low-interest loan fund for export enterprises, reduced or exempted some taxes and implemented export subsidies.
Second, it is the key to follow the comparative advantage and accurately locate the leading industries. Leading industry is the key industry on which a country's economic development depends in a certain period. These industries have formed the "leader" of the national economy at different stages of development, accounting for a large proportion in the industrial structure, and have a strong role in pulling forward or pushing back the whole economic development and other industries. Since the first industrial revolution in modern times, five leading industries have appeared in the history of world industrial development, which are: cotton textile industry, steel industry and railway construction industry in turn. Electric power, automobile, chemical and steel industries, automobile, petroleum, steel, durable consumer goods industries and information industries. Most countries in the world follow this natural historical process in the process of leading industry selection and industrial upgrading. The success of Japan and the "Four Little Dragons" lies in that they can give full play to the comparative advantages determined by the factor endowment structure at that time and form corresponding leading industries at various stages of economic development, instead of catching up without their own comparative advantages; With the development of economy, the accumulation of capital and the improvement of per capita capital, the leading industries have gradually changed from labor-intensive to capital-intensive, thus achieving rapid economic development. China has a vast territory, and the level of economic development varies greatly from place to place. Therefore, structural adjustment cannot be across the board, and different leading industries should be established for different regions. The leading industry has the characteristics of multi-level, comprehensiveness and sequence replacement. As far as China is concerned, the eastern region has a dense population, a good economic foundation, a relatively high capital accumulation rate and a leading level of economic development in China. In the past, most industries were concentrated in light industry, electronics, textiles, clothing and other industries. After a certain accumulation, the eastern provinces are now mainly concentrated on high value-added products with intensive technology, concentrated knowledge and capital, such as biopharmaceuticals, network communication and finance. As a large number of cutting-edge scientific and technological talents gather in the east, the task of transforming science and technology into real productive forces and cultivating new economic growth industries to maintain the vitality of national economic growth should also be completed by the east first. Because the natural conditions in the west are different from those in the east, and the land is vast and sparsely populated, large-scale machinery and equipment manufacturing, metal smelting, petrochemical and chemical industries that are not suitable for promotion in the east at this stage should be carried out in the west. At present, China's measures to implement the large-scale development of the western region and promote the coordinated development of the region are to transfer some industries to the west, and promote the industrial development of the west with the industrial development of the east.
Third, vigorously develop human resources, accelerate the development of education and promote scientific and technological progress and innovation. This is particularly evident in the development of Japan. The rapid development of Japan's economy after the war benefited from its complete education system and a large number of educated scientific and technological talents and labor force. With the advent of knowledge economy and information age, the competition between countries is mainly manifested in the competition for talents. The reason why the United States has established its position as the first economic and military power is because it has brought together outstanding talents from all over the world to serve it. The competition of talents is the focus of industrial competition. For many years, the United States has been in a leading position in high-tech development, especially information technology. One of the important reasons is that the United States can make full use of the wisdom and skills of information technology professionals in other countries. As a populous country in the world, China can be said to be invincible in terms of labor resources, but it is even inferior to Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of quality. A large population and few talents can be said to be the most important factors affecting the economic development of China, because the labor force is the most active and revolutionary factor in the development of productive forces, and the scientific and technological factors will eventually be digested and absorbed into real productive forces before they can play a role. It can be seen from Japan's economic development that the key to the cultivation of technological innovation ability lies in the development of basic research theory. Therefore, education is the ultimate goal and motive force of a country's development. Education is a century-long plan, and it is the wing of economic development. Only when education develops society can society progress.
Fourth, take high-tech as the leading factor and increase investment in science and technology. For a long time, developing countries have been seriously short of scientific researchers, scientific input and scientific activities, and their technological innovation ability is low. Technological progress depends on the introduction and absorption of foreign advanced technology, which seriously restricts the process and pace of economic development in every country and region. Relevant research shows that more than 90% of the world's scientific and technological investment, scientific and technological personnel and scientific and technological activities are concentrated in developed countries, and their annual scientific research expenditure accounts for 2.9% of the GDP, while the annual scientific research expenditure of many developing countries accounts for less than110, and the distribution is very uneven, and most of them are concentrated in a few developed areas. The high-tech industry dominated by information technology has increasingly become the decisive force for the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, and has also greatly shortened the industrialization process. China should seize the opportunity, make full use of the advantages of backwardness, vigorously promote the informationization of national economy represented by the informationization of manufacturing industry, and promote industrialization with informationization. On the one hand, we should adjust measures to local conditions, establish high-tech industries, study the strategic relationship between industrial upgrading and foreign trade development, transform traditional industries with high-tech and advanced and applicable technologies according to resource advantages and internal and external resource allocation conditions, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, create competitive advantages, and realize the leap-forward development of social productive forces.
References:
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