Abstract:

This paper examines the dependence of countries’ exports on upstream products and downstream markets from a global perspective, constructing a value chain control index to thoroughly explore the theoretical foundations of how regional trade agreement (RTA) networks influence this index. Based on an empirical analysis framework and theoretical hypotheses, this paper utilizes country-level data from 2006 to 2018 to empirically test the impact of China and the United States’ RTA networks on value chain control. The results reveal that China’s external RTA networks primarily affect value chain control through intermediary positioning, whereas their influence in terms of breadth status, provision depth, and provision integration is weaker than U.S. networks. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis demonstrates that U.S. networks more effectively enhance value chain control through trade cost reduction and technology spillover mechanisms relative to China’s external RTA networks. The research provides inspiration for China’s RTA strategy: China should take the initiative to align high-standard international economic rules and improve the status of its network, leading and integrating the RTA network with “Chinese rules”. At the same time, the industry orientation of regional trade agreements should be strengthened to provide a stable, transparent, and predictable institutional environment for the mechanism.

Key words: regional trade agreement network, value chain control system, social network, network status, international economic rules