With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine conflict,the changes in agricultural trade between China and Russia are receiving more and more attention.This study analyzes the current status of Sino-Russian agricultural tr...With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine conflict,the changes in agricultural trade between China and Russia are receiving more and more attention.This study analyzes the current status of Sino-Russian agricultural trade and employs a SWOT analysis to explore the strengths,weaknesses,opportunities,and threats within their agricultural trading activities.The findings suggest there are opportunities for further optimization and enhancement in the Sino-Russian agricultural trade.Based on this,suggestions proposed include accelerating the development of transportation hubs,facilitating agricultural trade,refining legal frameworks for agricultural exports,and expediting the establishment of economic cooperation zones.展开更多
The present study aims to analyze the growing Sino-Brazilian trade relationship and how China has contributed to the commodity price boom in the recent period.Throughout the article,it was possible to identify that th...The present study aims to analyze the growing Sino-Brazilian trade relationship and how China has contributed to the commodity price boom in the recent period.Throughout the article,it was possible to identify that the export and import agenda between countries differs in terms of number of products and technological intensity,so that imported products are capital intensive,while exported products are predominantly commodities.The text is divided into two main sections,firstly addressing the literature review on the commodities boom and highlighting the“China effect”.The second section analyzes trade between the countries,so that the trade relationship has followed an increasing trajectory since 2003.As of 2009,China has become Brazil’s main trading partner,surpassing historical partners such as the United States and Argentina.展开更多
Considering the growing prominence of global environmental issues,a low-carbon economy has emerged as a crucial direction for economic development across various countries.As the world’s second-largest economy,China ...Considering the growing prominence of global environmental issues,a low-carbon economy has emerged as a crucial direction for economic development across various countries.As the world’s second-largest economy,China has also witnessed the influence of a low-carbon economy on its international trade development.This article aims to commence with an exploration of the development background,meaning,and significance of a low-carbon economy.Subsequently,it delves into an in-depth analysis of the impact that a low-carbon economy has on China’s international trade.The article concludes by proposing pertinent countermeasures and suggestions.展开更多
Over the past seven decades since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949,China has continuously increased its import and export volumes along with improving its trade structure,becoming a major tradin...Over the past seven decades since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949,China has continuously increased its import and export volumes along with improving its trade structure,becoming a major trading nation and making progress toward a trading power.In the 13th Five-Year Plan period(2016-2020),China has experienced acceleration in its foreign trade structural adjustment under its opening-up strategy,and the function of foreign trade has shifted from being a driver for growth to being a way to balance development.China is expected to continue its trade growth momentum and structural improvement and strengthen its trade competitiveness.In achieving this vision,China should make efforts to increase structural equilibrium,create a favorable external trade environment,and pave the way for trade growth and sustainable development.展开更多
The Chinese Government attaches great importance to China-Africa agricultural cooperation and trade, and has adopted a series of measures to promote bilateral trade in agricultural products. This paper analyzes the tr...The Chinese Government attaches great importance to China-Africa agricultural cooperation and trade, and has adopted a series of measures to promote bilateral trade in agricultural products. This paper analyzes the trends and characteristics of China-Africa trade in agricultural products by using trade statistics, the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index and the Trade Compensation Index (TCI). Our findings suggest that the bilateral trade in agricultural products is adjusting to reflect the bilateral comparative advantage. However, China-Africa trade also faces enormous challenges, which reveals itself in a low level of complementarity. Meanwhile, the trade complementarity has failed to improve despite rapid growth of the bilateral trade in agricultural products. Based on the findings, the authors propose the need to further strengthen China-Africa cooperation and information sharing in agriculture to take full advantage of market opportunities and resource advantages.展开更多
Proceeding from trade structure variations,this paper provides a new perspective on the study of the share of labor income in China.China's commodity trade structure has experienced a step change in recent years.A...Proceeding from trade structure variations,this paper provides a new perspective on the study of the share of labor income in China.China's commodity trade structure has experienced a step change in recent years.According to theoretical analysis,trade exerts not only a direct effect on the share of labor income through international division of labor and specialization but also an indirect effect through factor intensity variations and technology progress bias.Empirical study discovered that export has a significant negative effect on the share of China's labor income while import has a positive effect.Import and export have different levels and directions of effect on sectors with different factor intensity.展开更多
To speed up the reform of the foreigntrade structure for meeting the needsof the international trade plan in ac-cordance with the demands of socialist marketeconomy is an important measure to realizethe intensive mana...To speed up the reform of the foreigntrade structure for meeting the needsof the international trade plan in ac-cordance with the demands of socialist marketeconomy is an important measure to realizethe intensive management of the nationaleconomy in Jiangsu Province during theNinth Five Year Plan from 1996 to 2000. In the period of the Eighth展开更多
The Sichuan Provincial ChangjiangEnterprise Company, the former ofSichuan Provincial ChangjiangEnterprise (Group) Holdings Co.(SPCEGHC), is a comprehensive foreigntrade enterprise under the direct leadershipof the pro...The Sichuan Provincial ChangjiangEnterprise Company, the former ofSichuan Provincial ChangjiangEnterprise (Group) Holdings Co.(SPCEGHC), is a comprehensive foreigntrade enterprise under the direct leadershipof the provincial government, mainly engagedin various kinds of foreign trade businessand as an agent for clients, involving deliveryof goods to foreign countries, the exchangeof technology, and the repair and leasing ofdomestic equipment. It was restructured tobecome an enterprise group in 1988, a"window" corporation on the province.展开更多
Of its total export volume,the proportion of China’s new andhigh technology products and highvalue-added products is extremelylow. Its pure technological exportrate is only 2 percent of the total.Therefore,along with...Of its total export volume,the proportion of China’s new andhigh technology products and highvalue-added products is extremelylow. Its pure technological exportrate is only 2 percent of the total.Therefore,along with thetransformation of the mode ofgrowth of China’s nationaleconomy, a corresponding growthmode transformation should takeplace in its foreign trade sector,and it is necessary to achieve asignificant change in its importand export product mix.展开更多
The foreign intra-Arab trade is an essential tool and important input in order to achieve an important Arab economic integration. However, in spite of the efforts for the Liberation of the Arab Trade and Development, ...The foreign intra-Arab trade is an essential tool and important input in order to achieve an important Arab economic integration. However, in spite of the efforts for the Liberation of the Arab Trade and Development, the fact indicates the modest rate of the foreign intra-Arab trade to the foreign total Arab trade with the world, as it does not exceed that percentage to 10.9% in year 2013. The present research is aimed at measuring the efficiency of the total foreign intra-Arab trade during the period (1990-2010). Where, it has been increased sharply, as value of the total foreign intra-Arab trade increases annually by about 12.6%. Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are considered the most important contributors of the total foreign intra-Arab trade, and a category of manufacturing has dominated the largest relative importance in average value of total Arab trade, which has accounted to 50.8%. Followed by category, metal fuel and other metals are accounted by about 25.3% and there is lower overall contribution to the foreign intra-Arab trade in the total foreign trade of Arab and its amount has increased by 10.58%. Therefore, it is recommended to further coordination among the Arab States in the areas of production and specialization in economic production. This is also recommended to establish the specialized department for greater Arab free trade area in every Arab country in addition to accelerate the establishment of a customs union.展开更多
This paper provides a computation on both the China's aggregate CO2 emission volume and the emission of each sector over the period of 2002-2007, based on the input-output analysis. Further analysis is also given on ...This paper provides a computation on both the China's aggregate CO2 emission volume and the emission of each sector over the period of 2002-2007, based on the input-output analysis. Further analysis is also given on the various determinants of the change in the emission volume, with the aid of structural decomposition analysis (SDA) based on a residual-free method. Based on the input-output table of China in 2002 and 2007, the merge of sectors and the adjustment of price change have been made during the study. The emissions of carbon dioxide in China increased from 2,887.3 million ton to 5,664.6 million ton during 2002-2007. The average rate of increase is 13.3%, faster than the average rate of gross domestic product (GDP) growth 11.6% slightly. According to the process of SDA, the changes in emission are analyzed in terms of four different factors. Among the four factors studied in the paper, it is found that the change of emission intensity and structure of demand are the main reason of the decrease of emission, while production technology and scale effect increase the emission volume. The paper also finds that although the direct emission intensity decreased during the study period, the total emission intensity increased with the annual rate of 3.8%, which reflects the result of energy policy is not equal in different sectors.展开更多
Analyzing the underlying characteristics of trade values movements has attracted much attention in the domestic research.However,the proposed understanding of these characteristics is limited by the intrinsic complexi...Analyzing the underlying characteristics of trade values movements has attracted much attention in the domestic research.However,the proposed understanding of these characteristics is limited by the intrinsic complexity of the imports/exports.Since economic systems are naturally organized by hierarchies,a novel hierarchical model is proposed in this paper to forecast China's foreign trade.First,the foreign trade data are disaggregated from perspectives of trading partners and trading products,forming two independent hierarchical models with total exports and imports as target variables.Second,a bottom-up strategy is applied.All bottom time series are modelled by corresponding control variables according to trading theories.Forecasts for bottom time series are then combined to generate initial forecasts for total exports and imports.Finally,forecasts for total imports and exports from the two hierarchical models,plus a single VECM model are combined to generate final forecasts.Empirical experiments show that this proposed forecasting model approach significantly outperforms benchmark models and produces consistent forecasts for both total imports and exports or detailed items,which helps a lot for analyzing future trading structure evolution and making foreign trade policies.展开更多
This paper empirically analyzes the structure of agricultural trade between China and the USA from 1996 to 2005, using different trade indexes such as the Grubel-Lloyd Index, the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index, ...This paper empirically analyzes the structure of agricultural trade between China and the USA from 1996 to 2005, using different trade indexes such as the Grubel-Lloyd Index, the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index, the Finger-Kreinin Similitude Index and the Export Diversification Index, with a focus on the issues impeding Sino-US agricultural trade. We found that over the period of 1996 to 2005, inter-industry trade outweighed intra-industry trade in Sino-US agricultural trade, and that bilateral trade was more complementary than competitive. At the same time, China's agricultural exports were more diversified than USA exports, but China's degree of diversification steadily declined during the sample period. The findings indicate that there exists great potential for further development of agricultural trade between China and the USA, and that positive and effective trade policies will result in maximization of potential agricultural trade development and will bring forth mutual benefits to both countries.展开更多
A striking feature of the structural change literature is that, even though the U.S. economy is often used as a benchmark for calibration, the traditional mo- dels cannot account for the steep decline in manufacturing...A striking feature of the structural change literature is that, even though the U.S. economy is often used as a benchmark for calibration, the traditional mo- dels cannot account for the steep decline in manufacturing and rise in services in the U.S. since the late 1970s (Buera and Kaboski, 2009). In order to solve this puzzle, this paper develops a three-sector model to evaluate various factors that could have contributed to the structural transformation process from 1950 to 2005. The results show that, in addition to traditional explanations, such as non-homothetic preference and sector-biased productivity progress, international trade is another major source of structural change and is able to explain about 35.5% of the overall employment share decrease in American manufacturing. The quantitative calibration estimates that the inter-sector trade makes a moderate contribution, while trade imbalances dominate the recent contraction of manufacturing employment share. Our results suggest that calibrated models based on U.S. data have to be adjusted by trade factors.展开更多
Japan was China's major trading partner in terms of China's total imports and exports until 2004 when dramatic changes took place. Its trading status with China dropped to the third place following the European Uni...Japan was China's major trading partner in terms of China's total imports and exports until 2004 when dramatic changes took place. Its trading status with China dropped to the third place following the European Union (EU), which dashed into the lead to become China' s most important trading partner, and the United States. This has aroused the concern from trade circles and scholars of both China and Japan. Digging into the causes and analyzing the future development trends have thus become a subject of common interest among the trade circles and scholars of China and Japan. This study is now a necessary cognitive prerequisite for studying how to further the economic and trade cooperation and expand investment and trade relations between the two countries. This paper indicates there is the potential for Japan to restore its leading position as the biggest trading partner of China. With the rise in the prices of production factors in China's coastal areas, Japanese enterprises are sure to follow the objective law governing economic development and increase their investment in the middle and western parts of China. If Japanese enterprises are aware of such changes and thereby reposition its investment in China by establishing new export processing bases, it is possible for Japan to return to its former position as the biggest trading partner of China.展开更多
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) was formally signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) countries, along with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. This was a si...The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) was formally signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) countries, along with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. This was a significant step towards regional integration in the Asia-Pacific region. Analysing the trade structure among member states is crucial in understanding the path to regional integration and policy implications of regional cooperation within the RCEP framework. Based on subdivided commodity data, this study reviews the evolution of merchandise trade in the RCEP region in the past two decades. It investigates the current trade structure of the RCEP, emphasising the relative importance of intra-regional versus extra-regional interdependence and the trade asymmetry of the regional members. The results of the study are as follows: First, the overall extent of regional trade integration in the RCEP region increased modestly from 2001 to 2018, indicating that the RCEP region was export-oriented and there was significant room for further expansion of regional trade. Second, most of the commodities traded in the RCEP region demonstrated much higher extra-regional interdependence than intra-regional in 2018, particularly labor-, capital-, and technology-intensive products such as television and radio apparatus. Third, the trade networks of the top five traded commodities were distinguished by large economic asymmetries, with China, Japan, and South Korea being the dominant regional powers. These findings have significant implications for understanding how to promote regional integration and cooperation. Besides expanding intra-regional trade, outward-oriented factors influenced by the regional powers—including consolidating the global advantages of manufacturing, stabilizing supply chains by including large resource countries, and attracting extra-regional investments—were also the main rationales for the conclusion of the RCEP.展开更多
文摘With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine conflict,the changes in agricultural trade between China and Russia are receiving more and more attention.This study analyzes the current status of Sino-Russian agricultural trade and employs a SWOT analysis to explore the strengths,weaknesses,opportunities,and threats within their agricultural trading activities.The findings suggest there are opportunities for further optimization and enhancement in the Sino-Russian agricultural trade.Based on this,suggestions proposed include accelerating the development of transportation hubs,facilitating agricultural trade,refining legal frameworks for agricultural exports,and expediting the establishment of economic cooperation zones.
文摘The present study aims to analyze the growing Sino-Brazilian trade relationship and how China has contributed to the commodity price boom in the recent period.Throughout the article,it was possible to identify that the export and import agenda between countries differs in terms of number of products and technological intensity,so that imported products are capital intensive,while exported products are predominantly commodities.The text is divided into two main sections,firstly addressing the literature review on the commodities boom and highlighting the“China effect”.The second section analyzes trade between the countries,so that the trade relationship has followed an increasing trajectory since 2003.As of 2009,China has become Brazil’s main trading partner,surpassing historical partners such as the United States and Argentina.
文摘Considering the growing prominence of global environmental issues,a low-carbon economy has emerged as a crucial direction for economic development across various countries.As the world’s second-largest economy,China has also witnessed the influence of a low-carbon economy on its international trade development.This article aims to commence with an exploration of the development background,meaning,and significance of a low-carbon economy.Subsequently,it delves into an in-depth analysis of the impact that a low-carbon economy has on China’s international trade.The article concludes by proposing pertinent countermeasures and suggestions.
文摘Over the past seven decades since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949,China has continuously increased its import and export volumes along with improving its trade structure,becoming a major trading nation and making progress toward a trading power.In the 13th Five-Year Plan period(2016-2020),China has experienced acceleration in its foreign trade structural adjustment under its opening-up strategy,and the function of foreign trade has shifted from being a driver for growth to being a way to balance development.China is expected to continue its trade growth momentum and structural improvement and strengthen its trade competitiveness.In achieving this vision,China should make efforts to increase structural equilibrium,create a favorable external trade environment,and pave the way for trade growth and sustainable development.
文摘The Chinese Government attaches great importance to China-Africa agricultural cooperation and trade, and has adopted a series of measures to promote bilateral trade in agricultural products. This paper analyzes the trends and characteristics of China-Africa trade in agricultural products by using trade statistics, the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index and the Trade Compensation Index (TCI). Our findings suggest that the bilateral trade in agricultural products is adjusting to reflect the bilateral comparative advantage. However, China-Africa trade also faces enormous challenges, which reveals itself in a low level of complementarity. Meanwhile, the trade complementarity has failed to improve despite rapid growth of the bilateral trade in agricultural products. Based on the findings, the authors propose the need to further strengthen China-Africa cooperation and information sharing in agriculture to take full advantage of market opportunities and resource advantages.
文摘Proceeding from trade structure variations,this paper provides a new perspective on the study of the share of labor income in China.China's commodity trade structure has experienced a step change in recent years.According to theoretical analysis,trade exerts not only a direct effect on the share of labor income through international division of labor and specialization but also an indirect effect through factor intensity variations and technology progress bias.Empirical study discovered that export has a significant negative effect on the share of China's labor income while import has a positive effect.Import and export have different levels and directions of effect on sectors with different factor intensity.
文摘To speed up the reform of the foreigntrade structure for meeting the needsof the international trade plan in ac-cordance with the demands of socialist marketeconomy is an important measure to realizethe intensive management of the nationaleconomy in Jiangsu Province during theNinth Five Year Plan from 1996 to 2000. In the period of the Eighth
文摘The Sichuan Provincial ChangjiangEnterprise Company, the former ofSichuan Provincial ChangjiangEnterprise (Group) Holdings Co.(SPCEGHC), is a comprehensive foreigntrade enterprise under the direct leadershipof the provincial government, mainly engagedin various kinds of foreign trade businessand as an agent for clients, involving deliveryof goods to foreign countries, the exchangeof technology, and the repair and leasing ofdomestic equipment. It was restructured tobecome an enterprise group in 1988, a"window" corporation on the province.
文摘Of its total export volume,the proportion of China’s new andhigh technology products and highvalue-added products is extremelylow. Its pure technological exportrate is only 2 percent of the total.Therefore,along with thetransformation of the mode ofgrowth of China’s nationaleconomy, a corresponding growthmode transformation should takeplace in its foreign trade sector,and it is necessary to achieve asignificant change in its importand export product mix.
文摘The foreign intra-Arab trade is an essential tool and important input in order to achieve an important Arab economic integration. However, in spite of the efforts for the Liberation of the Arab Trade and Development, the fact indicates the modest rate of the foreign intra-Arab trade to the foreign total Arab trade with the world, as it does not exceed that percentage to 10.9% in year 2013. The present research is aimed at measuring the efficiency of the total foreign intra-Arab trade during the period (1990-2010). Where, it has been increased sharply, as value of the total foreign intra-Arab trade increases annually by about 12.6%. Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are considered the most important contributors of the total foreign intra-Arab trade, and a category of manufacturing has dominated the largest relative importance in average value of total Arab trade, which has accounted to 50.8%. Followed by category, metal fuel and other metals are accounted by about 25.3% and there is lower overall contribution to the foreign intra-Arab trade in the total foreign trade of Arab and its amount has increased by 10.58%. Therefore, it is recommended to further coordination among the Arab States in the areas of production and specialization in economic production. This is also recommended to establish the specialized department for greater Arab free trade area in every Arab country in addition to accelerate the establishment of a customs union.
文摘This paper provides a computation on both the China's aggregate CO2 emission volume and the emission of each sector over the period of 2002-2007, based on the input-output analysis. Further analysis is also given on the various determinants of the change in the emission volume, with the aid of structural decomposition analysis (SDA) based on a residual-free method. Based on the input-output table of China in 2002 and 2007, the merge of sectors and the adjustment of price change have been made during the study. The emissions of carbon dioxide in China increased from 2,887.3 million ton to 5,664.6 million ton during 2002-2007. The average rate of increase is 13.3%, faster than the average rate of gross domestic product (GDP) growth 11.6% slightly. According to the process of SDA, the changes in emission are analyzed in terms of four different factors. Among the four factors studied in the paper, it is found that the change of emission intensity and structure of demand are the main reason of the decrease of emission, while production technology and scale effect increase the emission volume. The paper also finds that although the direct emission intensity decreased during the study period, the total emission intensity increased with the annual rate of 3.8%, which reflects the result of energy policy is not equal in different sectors.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.7142201571573251+6 种基金7170315671988101the National Center of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary SciencesCAS(Global Macroeconomic MonitoringForecasting and Policy Simulation Platform)Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of StatisticsXiamen University under Grant No.201601。
文摘Analyzing the underlying characteristics of trade values movements has attracted much attention in the domestic research.However,the proposed understanding of these characteristics is limited by the intrinsic complexity of the imports/exports.Since economic systems are naturally organized by hierarchies,a novel hierarchical model is proposed in this paper to forecast China's foreign trade.First,the foreign trade data are disaggregated from perspectives of trading partners and trading products,forming two independent hierarchical models with total exports and imports as target variables.Second,a bottom-up strategy is applied.All bottom time series are modelled by corresponding control variables according to trading theories.Forecasts for bottom time series are then combined to generate initial forecasts for total exports and imports.Finally,forecasts for total imports and exports from the two hierarchical models,plus a single VECM model are combined to generate final forecasts.Empirical experiments show that this proposed forecasting model approach significantly outperforms benchmark models and produces consistent forecasts for both total imports and exports or detailed items,which helps a lot for analyzing future trading structure evolution and making foreign trade policies.
文摘This paper empirically analyzes the structure of agricultural trade between China and the USA from 1996 to 2005, using different trade indexes such as the Grubel-Lloyd Index, the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index, the Finger-Kreinin Similitude Index and the Export Diversification Index, with a focus on the issues impeding Sino-US agricultural trade. We found that over the period of 1996 to 2005, inter-industry trade outweighed intra-industry trade in Sino-US agricultural trade, and that bilateral trade was more complementary than competitive. At the same time, China's agricultural exports were more diversified than USA exports, but China's degree of diversification steadily declined during the sample period. The findings indicate that there exists great potential for further development of agricultural trade between China and the USA, and that positive and effective trade policies will result in maximization of potential agricultural trade development and will bring forth mutual benefits to both countries.
文摘A striking feature of the structural change literature is that, even though the U.S. economy is often used as a benchmark for calibration, the traditional mo- dels cannot account for the steep decline in manufacturing and rise in services in the U.S. since the late 1970s (Buera and Kaboski, 2009). In order to solve this puzzle, this paper develops a three-sector model to evaluate various factors that could have contributed to the structural transformation process from 1950 to 2005. The results show that, in addition to traditional explanations, such as non-homothetic preference and sector-biased productivity progress, international trade is another major source of structural change and is able to explain about 35.5% of the overall employment share decrease in American manufacturing. The quantitative calibration estimates that the inter-sector trade makes a moderate contribution, while trade imbalances dominate the recent contraction of manufacturing employment share. Our results suggest that calibrated models based on U.S. data have to be adjusted by trade factors.
文摘Japan was China's major trading partner in terms of China's total imports and exports until 2004 when dramatic changes took place. Its trading status with China dropped to the third place following the European Union (EU), which dashed into the lead to become China' s most important trading partner, and the United States. This has aroused the concern from trade circles and scholars of both China and Japan. Digging into the causes and analyzing the future development trends have thus become a subject of common interest among the trade circles and scholars of China and Japan. This study is now a necessary cognitive prerequisite for studying how to further the economic and trade cooperation and expand investment and trade relations between the two countries. This paper indicates there is the potential for Japan to restore its leading position as the biggest trading partner of China. With the rise in the prices of production factors in China's coastal areas, Japanese enterprises are sure to follow the objective law governing economic development and increase their investment in the middle and western parts of China. If Japanese enterprises are aware of such changes and thereby reposition its investment in China by establishing new export processing bases, it is possible for Japan to return to its former position as the biggest trading partner of China.
基金The Program of High-gradePrecision and Advanced Disciplines Constructions in Beijing Universities。
文摘The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) was formally signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) countries, along with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. This was a significant step towards regional integration in the Asia-Pacific region. Analysing the trade structure among member states is crucial in understanding the path to regional integration and policy implications of regional cooperation within the RCEP framework. Based on subdivided commodity data, this study reviews the evolution of merchandise trade in the RCEP region in the past two decades. It investigates the current trade structure of the RCEP, emphasising the relative importance of intra-regional versus extra-regional interdependence and the trade asymmetry of the regional members. The results of the study are as follows: First, the overall extent of regional trade integration in the RCEP region increased modestly from 2001 to 2018, indicating that the RCEP region was export-oriented and there was significant room for further expansion of regional trade. Second, most of the commodities traded in the RCEP region demonstrated much higher extra-regional interdependence than intra-regional in 2018, particularly labor-, capital-, and technology-intensive products such as television and radio apparatus. Third, the trade networks of the top five traded commodities were distinguished by large economic asymmetries, with China, Japan, and South Korea being the dominant regional powers. These findings have significant implications for understanding how to promote regional integration and cooperation. Besides expanding intra-regional trade, outward-oriented factors influenced by the regional powers—including consolidating the global advantages of manufacturing, stabilizing supply chains by including large resource countries, and attracting extra-regional investments—were also the main rationales for the conclusion of the RCEP.