中国自由贸易区战略提升中国进口食品质量了吗——基于双重差分模型

Has Regional Free Trade Strategy Improved China's Imported Food Quality——Based on Difference in Difference Model

中国自2007年确定了实施自由贸易区战略,已经陆续与周边15个国家(地区)签订了区域自由贸易协定,这意味着在WTO多边贸易体制外,中国正通过构建跨国区域贸易合作,进一步通过降低关税开放市场。本文基于中国实施自由贸易区战略这一准自然试验,在贸易自由化的框架下,将进口食品按照2002年进口关税高低划分为高关税食品(实验组)和低关税食品(对照组),并采用DID双重差分模型,实证分析了中国自由贸易区战略(政策冲击)对中国进口食品质量的影响。研究结果表明:中国自由贸易区战略提高了中国进口食品质量,自由贸易区战略对高关税食品进口质量的提升幅度比低关税食品更大;该结论对于"一带一路"沿线国家和中国—东盟自由贸易区的特定市场也成立。本研究从区域自由贸易的维度,为解释中国大幅增加食品进口提供了新的实证依据。

China identified and implemented the regional free trade strategy in 2007.It has successively signed regional free trade agreements with 15 neighboring countries.This means that,China is reducing its import tariffs and opening market through regional trade agreements in addition to the WTO ’ s multilateral trading system. This paper carried out empirical analysis based on the quasi-natural experiment of China’ s implementation of the regional free trade strategy. Under the framework of trade liberalization,the product was divided into high-tariff food( treated group) and low-tariff food( control group) according to the import tariff level in 2002. The model empirically analyzes the impact of China’ s regional free trade strategy( policy shock) on China’ s imported food quality by using DID model. The study finds that: China’ s regional free trade strategy has significantly improved the quality of imported food in China. Unlike general research results,the regional free trade strategy has a higher increase in the quality of import foodwith high-tariff than low-tariff ones. And these conclusions are robust for the specific markets of countries along the Belt and Road and China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. This study provides a new empirical explanation and evidencefor dramatically increase in imported food of China from the perspective of regional free trade strategy.