The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changes in the Korea-China division of labor relations centered on the high-tech intermediate goods and to present the development direction of the high-tech intermediate goods division relationship amid the paradigm shift of the industrial policy between the two countries in the post-COVID 19 era. To this end, based on UNComrade D/B’s BEC trade data, we examined the changes in bilateral trade relations between the two countries during the 2011-2019 period, and in particular, the division of high-tech intermediate goods and the trade competitiveness of major items were identified.
The main analysis results are summarized as follows. First, the proportion of high-value-added parts in Korea’s export structure of intermediate goods to China has decreased, but the proportion of exports in high-tech sectors has increased in parts. Second, Korea’s export competitiveness of intermediate goods in high-tech sectors to China, which was examined through the TSI, has been continuously decreasing. Third, the export structure of Korea’s high-tech parts to China showed the trend of decreasing export competitiveness of electronic components, electrical diagnostic devices, and telecommunication equipment parts, which Korea had been competitive in.
As an indication of this, Korea needs to maintain a continuous division of labor, focusing on items with clear export competitiveness in the import and export of parts in the high-tech sector. Second, Korea’s export competitiveness in parts trade in the high-tech sector has been decreasing recently, but it needs to focus its policy capabilities on securing competitiveness in the group of items with strategic values that are important in the industrial policy. Finally, it is necessary to pursue the transition to the Korea-China divisional labor model in various sectors such as R&D, trial application and technology patent for technical cooperation as well as divisional relations through the trade of parts in high-tech fields.