School of Economics, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.
Business School, NingboTech University, Ningbo, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 Jul 22;10:926216. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.926216. eCollection 2022.
To depict the evolution of the global trade of medical devices, this study analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of global and China's trade patterns of medical devices from 2001 to 2020 based on data from the World Bank and United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, and thereby investigates the status quo of global and China's medical device trade, as well as changes in China's position in the global medical device trade. The findings are as follows. First, the total global trade volume of medical devices is generally on the rise, showing closer network connections. Despite some changes in trade position, the core countries in the global medical device trade network are relatively fixed. The intermediate position of core trading countries has been weakened on the whole, whereas exporting countries have generally assumed an enhanced central position. Communities with geographical proximity have been formed in the global medical device trade network, including two large communities, the Asian-European countries and the Pacific Rim countries, and one small community, the South American countries. Second, with its rapidly growing trade volume of medical devices with other countries, China has now become the fourth largest medical device trading country in the world. Its number of import and export partners has remained relatively stable and continued to increase. Its export markets are relatively concentrated, and a tripartite pattern of import sources has been formed. China has established extensive interdependent relations and almost no one-way dependent relations in the medical device trade. Among its major trading partners for medical devices, the interdependence of China with developed countries/regions, such as European and American countries and Japan, has generally deepened.
为了描绘医疗器械全球贸易的演变，本研究基于世界银行和联合国商品贸易统计数据库的数据，分析了 2001 年至 2020 年期间全球和中国医疗器械贸易模式的时空演变特征，从而调查了全球和中国医疗器械贸易的现状，以及中国在全球医疗器械贸易中的地位变化。研究结果如下。首先，医疗器械的全球贸易总量总体呈上升趋势，网络联系更加紧密。尽管贸易地位有所变化，但医疗器械全球贸易网络中的核心国家相对固定。核心贸易国的中间地位整体减弱，而出口国普遍处于增强的中心地位。医疗器械全球贸易网络中形成了具有地理接近性的社区，包括两个大社区，即亚欧国家和环太平洋国家，以及一个小社区，即南美国家。其次，随着医疗器械与其他国家贸易量的快速增长，中国现已成为全球第四大医疗器械贸易国。中国的进出口伙伴数量相对稳定并持续增加。其出口市场相对集中，形成了三方进口来源格局。中国在医疗器械贸易中建立了广泛的相互依存关系，几乎没有单向依赖关系。在中国的主要医疗器械贸易伙伴中，中国与发达地区/国家（如欧美国家和日本）的相互依存关系普遍加深。
