Chinese Trade Reforms, Market Access and Foreign Competition: the Patterns of French Exporters

Maria Bas (1) , Pamela Bombarda (2)

1 CEPII - Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales
2 THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications

A unilateral trade reform generates two opposite effects: market access expansion and strengthening of competitive pressures in the liberalized market. Using detailed trade and firm-level data from France, we investigate how French firms' product scope and export sales changed after Chinese liberalization vis-à-vis Asian liberalization. Our findings suggest that lower Chinese import tariffs account on average for 7 percent of the new products exported by French firms, and for 18 percent of additional French export sales. These results are robust when accounting for foreign competition faced by French firms in the liberalized market.

Mots clés: unilateral trade liberalization; market access; foreign competition; export margins and firm level data

Domaines: Economies et finances

Maria Bas, Pamela Bombarda. Chinese Trade Reforms, Market Access and Foreign Competition: the Patterns of French Exporters. World Bank Economic Review, 2013, vol. 27(1). First published online June 25, 2012. (1), pp.80-108. ⟨10.1093/wber/lhs016⟩. ⟨hal-00874946⟩