全球化背景下的美国纺织服装产业与进口产品:竞争还是合作?

传统观点将进口产品的涌入单纯视为美国纺织服装产业生存和发展的负面冲击因素。然而,全球化背景下,美国纺织服装产业事实上实施了多项产业转型策略,产业运行与进口产品之间的关系也随之发生了较大变化。本文首先从理论角度对转型后的美国纺织服装产业与进口产品之间的关系进行了系统分析。研究发现,由于产业自身特点和美国特定的生产要素禀赋,美国纺织产业和服装产业选择了截然不同的转型路径,转型后的美国纺织产业与进口产品依然偏向竞争性关系,美国服装产业与进口产品则形成了合作性关系。

Competition or Corporation: Study on the Relationship between the Operation of the U.S. Textile and Apparel Industry and Imports in the Globalized Era

Imports traditionally are simply regarded as the competing factor challenging the survival of the U.S. domestic textile and apparel industry (T&A industry). However, in the globalized era, the U.S. T&A industry actually has undergone tremendous restructurings which led to the new relationship between the operation of the industry and the imports. This article theoretically analyzes the relationship between the U.S. T&A industry and imports in the globalized era. Due to the heterogeneous characteristics of the industry as well as the specific production factor endowments in the U.S., respective restructuring strategies have been adopted by the U.S. textile industry and the U.S. apparel industry. As result, the U.S. textile industry is still competing with imports while for the U.S. apparel industry, it has largely been more cooperative with imports than before. Based on the data collected by NAICS code, this article further empirically tests the above relationship by using the seemly unrelated regression (SUR) model. However, findings from the empirical test turn out to be more complicated and mixed than theoretically suggested. This study has important implications and values in exploring the survival, transformation and operation status of the U.S. T&A industry in the globalized era.