Abstract: The promoting effects of relative preference of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) tariff concession on imports of one country from the partner countries are theoretically explored, and the influence of trade complementarity, trade competitiveness and export product structure similarity on the promotion effects is identified. By introducing a relative preference margin index and based on the three-dimensional panel data of “Country-Product-Year” from 2004 to 2018, the trade gravity model is used to carry out empirical testing. The results of the overall sample show that the relative preference of FTA tariff concession has promoted China’s import trade, and all of the three factors strengthen this promoting effect. As to the country sample, for products with high trade competitiveness from developed countries, products with strong complementarity and high structural similarity from developing countries, the relative preference of FTA tariff concession has a greater promoting effect on trade. As to the product sample, the relative preference of FTA tariff concession is more conducive to China’s imports of technology-intensive products with high trade competitiveness and resource-intensive products with high export product structural similarity, but it inhibits China’s imports of labor-intensive products with high export product structural similarity. Suggestions on FTA tariff concession strategies are put up from three aspects: overall consideration, strengthening South-South negotiations and focusing on some specific product categories.

Key words: FTA, tariff concession, relative preference margin, import trade