The Changing Comparative Advantages and Structure of China's Service Exports

摘要

As an important part of international trade, global exports of services have undergone rapid development since the 1980s. They grew faster than merchandise exports in most of the years. The service export value of services in 2007 was more than 8.5 times that of 1982. This is even true in the case of China. China's service exports soared during the last quarter century, increasing in value from $2.51 billion in 1982 to $117.15 billion in 2007, an increase of nearly 46 times. The years since the late 1990s have witnessed steady growth in China's service exports. Meanwhile, China's rank in service trade has risen from 29th in 1982 to 7th in 2007 (see Table 1). Over the same period, its share in global service exports increased from 0.6 per cent to 3.5 per cent and the relative export share (RES) of China's trade in services soared from 3.9 per cent to 24.5 per cent.