Abstract: It has become a consensus of the international community to improve trade efficiency through trade facilitation. The paper uses the trade facilitation indicators(TFI) compiled by the OECD and the data of 98 countries(regions) exports to the United States involving 96 sectors in 2015 to analyze the effect of trade facilitation on export diversification with negative binomial regression. The results show that the trade facilitation has a significant impact on the diversification of export products, especially, has a more significant effect on export diversification of agricultural products than manufactured goods, and has the greatest impact on the diversification of export products in high-income countries(regions);the impacts of different measures for trade facilitation on the diversification of export products are different: among the 11 trade facilitation measures, only the “Co-operation internal” coefficient doesn′t pass the significant test, the other 10 trade facilitation measures have significant effects on the diversification of export products, and the impact of “Formalities Procedures” is the greatest. The empirical results indicate the importance of trade facilitation in the “post-tariff era”, provide theoretical support for promoting trade facilitation, and provide reference for China′s trade facilitation construction and transformation of China′s foreign trade policy.

Key words: trade facilitation, export diversification, negative binomial regression