A Study on Competitiveness and Complementarity of Wooden Furniture Trade between China and the United States

With the trade of wooden furniture developing significantly in China, China has been the biggest exporter of wooden furniture in the world since 2005. The study shows that China is the prime importer of wooden furniture produced in the United States, while the United States is the main destination of exports of China. This paper measures the complementarity of wooden furniture trade between China and the United States by using the trade combination degree index (TCD), revealed comparative advantage index ( RCA ) and trade complementary index. Then it measures the competitiveness of wooden furniture trade between China and the United States using the revealed competitive advantage index (CA) and product similarity index. The result of the research indicates that complementarity and competitiveness do exist in China and the United States'wooden furniture trade. However, China has more competitive advantages than the United States. China would better export wooden furniture to the United States. Then we offer some proposals on the basis of the conclusions summarized above, so as to overcome the effects of competition between China and the United States, provide substantial supports for the win-win situation, and provide references for the upgrade of industrial structure of Chinese wooden furniture and the innovation and development of Chinese wooden furniture import and export companies.