Abstract:  China and the United States are important IT production and trading powers in the world, and their bilateral trade has developed very rapidly. Based on the revised CMS model, this paper decomposes the IT product trade growth factors between China and the United States from 1997 to 2014. The findings are as follows: first, export price competitiveness effect is the major trade growth factor between China and the United States, and manufacturing cost gap tends to narrow; second, market demand effect continues to enhance but demand strongest in China than the United States; and third, export structure effect is low or even negative as a result of the dislocation of export structure and market demand, which restricts the growth of trade between the two countries. The conclusions of this paper not only deepen and enrich the theory of international trade, but also reveal the future direction of China’s IT industry competitive advantage. It has a guiding significance to enhance the IT products trade quality and expand trade scale between China and the United States.

Key words: Sino-US IT products, revised CMS model, market demand effect, price competitiveness effect, export structure effect