Combing the fact of low sophistication of intermediate inputs and inefficient producer service in China with the conclusion by Zhang and Liu（2018）that producer service contributes to the improvement of intermediate production capacity and sophistication, we have the following doubt: How can producer service be embedded in the manufacturing sector to effectively promote the export sophistication of intermediate inputs? Improving the sophistication of intermediate inputs and the efficiency of producer service is fundamental to improving the quality of China’s economic growth and achieving the strategy of “address inadequacies and shore up weakness”. Therefore, it is urgent to dig into the effect of producer service resources embedded in the manufacturing sector on the intermediate input export sophistication.

Our main conclusions are: When producer service resources are embedded in the manufacturing sector too upstream or downstream, they will adversely affect the intermediate input export sophistication. However, when producer service resources are embedded in the midstream of the manufacturing sector, their effect on the intermediate input export sophistication is positive and optimal. Therefore, the manufacturing section preference of producer service has an inverted U-shaped effect on the intermediate input export sophistication, and growth rate fluctuation, tax shocks and external negative shocks cannot change the inverted U-shaped mechanism. In addition, the export sophistication of China’s intermediate inputs needs to be enhanced, since the export sophistication of manufacturing and producer service intermediate inputs is lower than that of both developed and some developing countries.

Our major contributions are as follows: First, we analyze the effect of producer service section preference on intermediate input export sophistication for the first time by effectively connecting export sophistication, producer service and intermediate inputs through the section preference; Second, we deepen the research in the field of export sophistication and intermediate inputs, extend the research of export sophistication from final products to intermediate products, and extend the study on intermediate products from “quantity” to “sophistication”; Third, we modify the measurement process of Antràs, et al.（2012）and Hausmann, et al.（2007）to provide two relatively reliable and scientific analysis tools for further research in this field.