Study of the Change in Export Competitive Advantage of Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan in the US Market – Using RCA as the Measurement Index

The main purpose of the study is to explore the change in export competitive advantage of Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan in the US market and to study whether the structure of export industry is changing in each country, by using the two-digit industries as the basis for analysis, and the every three-year average variation of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) to understand the enhancement rate and reducing rate of comparative advantage of industrial export. Thus, whether the change in export competitive advantage was related to the shifting of comparative advantage between areas was analyzed by using the RCA correlation coefficients for each country. Finally, the size of change in export industry structure and whether each country was following the development of or competing with each other, was explored using the RCA correlation coefficients for each country. The research concluded the demonstration of significant positive correlation between South Korea and Taiwan’s export products to the US, while the pattern of Taiwan’s export products to the US followed Japan, but not at the same pace as Japan yet, and the pattern of China’s export products to the US followed Taiwan’s route of development closely to move forward.