By Zhao Jinping, Lv Gang　

Date: 2002/02/22

Abstract:

The balance of trade between China and Japan improved significantly in 1990s while China suffered deficit in her trade with Republic of Korea and the deficit was growing in scale. China has substantial comparative advantage over Japan, and less so over Republic of Korea in terms of labor-intensive products or agricultural products. In contrast with Sino-ROK trade, the intra-industry trade between China and Japan is relatively low and the division of labor between China and Japan is of vertical nature. Processing trade takes a large share of trade between China and Japan and between China and Republic of Korea, and the internal trade of transnational corporations takes a dominant position.