Development pattern of trade facilitation of the countries along the belt and road

Abstract

Trade facilitation plays an important role in the economic cooperation of the countries along the Belt and Road. Increasing the level of trade facilitation is conducive to promote the orderly and freely flow of economic factors in the region. Based on the perspective of trade facilitation and existing literature review, this study constructed an evaluation system of trade facilitation with 29 indicators, analyzed the development trend, spatial pattern, and development mode of trade facilitation in the countries along the Belt and Road from 2013 to 2017, and put forward some policy recommendations. The results show that: 1) Since 2013, the level of trade facilitation in the countries along the Belt and Road has been slowly rising, and the six subregions ranked from high to low according to the increase in trade facilitation levels are Mongolia and Russia, Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, West Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. 2) Trade facilitation level of the countries along the Belt and Road showed a spatial pattern of high in the east and west and low in the center, and high in the south and low in the north. And the spatial differences gradually narrowed. 3) The change of the second-level indicators was relatively consistent with the overall trade facilitation. China ranks high among the Belt and Road countries on the second-level indicators except business environment. 4) Trade facilitation can be divided into eight modes through k-means cluster analysis. "High level comprehensive development" and "Low level comprehensive development" were the main development modes of the countries along the Belt and Road. "Lagging behind in customs clearance costs and international cooperation", "Leading in domestic trading environment" and "Leading in infrastructure construction" have become important development modes for some countries in Southeast Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.