The impact of mutual recognition of geographical indications on the quality upgrading of China’s agricultural exports

Improving the quality of agricultural exports and increasing value–added trade is crucial for shaping new competitive advantages of agricultural exports, building a strong trading nation and achieving high–quality agricultural development. This study constructed a multi–time point difference–in–differences model to empirically test the effect and mechanism of the mutual recognition of geographical indications (GIs) between China and the European Union (EU) on the quality upgrading of China’s exported agricultural products from 2000 to 2016 based on theoretical analysis of the effect mechanism of GIs on agricultural product exports. The study determined that mutual GI recognition between China and the EU has effectively improved the quality of agricultural exports, with a greater effect on upgrading the quality of products from countries with high GIs endowment, quality frontier and large and medium–sized enterprises and labour–intensive products. The mechanism analysis revealed that mutual GI recognition between China and the EU can improve the quality of agricultural exports through specialisation agglomeration and cost-saving effects on the supply side and domestic demand upgrading and product recognition effects on the demand side. This study has important implications for further enriching quality improvement theory regarding agricultural products and presents a new approach for enhancing the quality improvement path of exported agricultural products that lack supply–side resources.