Journal of Economic Surveys, 2006, 11: 24-25.
Green Barriers Trade and its Influences on China's
Foreign Trade
Thomas J. Sargent
ABSTRACT
In recent years, green consumption has become a main trend of the consumption in many developed countries and these countries began to make strict standards to restrict the entry of foreign products below their standards of environmental protection.
Key words:Green Barriers; products; Trade
In recent years, green consumption has become a main trend of the consumption in many developed countries and these countries began to make strict standards to restrict the entry of foreign products below their standards of environmental protection. These regulations have many unfavorable influences on the export of developing countries and are generally known as \Agreement on Green Barriers to Trade of WTO, \the compulsory and arbitrary Green regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures of the importing countries in the name of the protection of human health and environment that actually form barriers to trade with an aim to protect its home market and domestic products.
1. Analysis on the causes of formation of \
Firstly, the worsening of ecology is the major reason for \development of industry and technology, the economy increases very fast and the human life has been improved. But at the same time, the development of economy is at a cost of the destruction of environment. The environmental problems have aroused public attention and the international society has begun to make laws to protect environment. In June, 1972, the United Nations published the Stockholm Declaration and stressed the importance of the protection of environment. From then on, more and more people concern about the environmental problems. The concept of environment has influenced the life of humankinds in every layer and the developed countries began to make very strict
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environmental protection rules under the pressure of public, which forms a barrier to the international trade.
Secondly, the differences between countries in technology, environmental standards and investment directly cause the \Trade Barriers\As we know, developed countries surpass the developing countries in science and technology. Even if they make very strict environmental standards, their domestic products can reach the requirements of strict environmental standards while such standards may constitute barriers to products from developing countries. In fact, these standards may become discriminations against products from the developing countries and constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between country.
Thirdly, the rise of protectionism in some developed countries contributes much to the formation of Green barriers. In modern market economy, competition is more severe than before. The domestic industries are directly facing competition from the products of other countries, and they will urge their governments to take effective measures to protect them from the foreign products. While because of the multilateral negotiations of WTO, the tariffs have been greatly cut down and the use of non-tariff measures has also been restricted. Therefore, many developed countries have to resort to some legal restrictions of importation such as Green barriers to protect their home industries, which gives rise to the increase of Green barriers.
2. The main forms of Green barriers trade
In accordance with the related provisions of WTO Agreement on Green Barriers to Trade, the Green barriers are usually in the forms as follows:
2.1 Green Tariff
Some developed countries would impose import surtax on products that may cause pollution or harms to the environment. If such measure is abused, it will constitute a Green barrier to trade.
2.2 Green Standards
Green standards refer to those compulsory Green standards provided through legislation. With their superiority in economy and technology, developed countries tend to make higher Green standards with no consideration on the interests of the developing countries. Such high Green standards will in fact constitute a barrier to the products from
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济南大学毕业论文外文资料翻译
developing countries which are inferior in technology.
2.3 Package Requirements
Certain developed countries stress too much on the protection of environment and require the products should be packed with materials that will have no harm to the environment. If the products are not packed in this way, they will not be allowed to sell in the developed countries. If such requirements are unnecessarily strict, they will be a barrier to the international trade.
2.4 Sanitary and quarantine inspection system
On the excuse of the protection of the health of human, animals and plants, developed countries tend to use very strict sanitary and quarantine inspection to restrict the importation of the products from the developing countries and protect their domestic industries.
3. Influences of Green barriers on China's foreign trade
China has suffered great loss due to the \Taizhou were prevented from entering Japan because of Japanese strict inspection and the price was greatly cut down. Also in 2002, the aquatic products from Ningbo were restricted by European Union (EU) because they could not reach the sanitary standards of EU. Due to Green trade barriers, 60 kinds of Chinese agricultural chemists were banned by EU because they could not reach the Green standards of EU. In accordance with the statistics of United Nations, China has suffered a loss of $7.4 billion in 2002 due to \trade\Generally speaking, agricultural products and foodstuff, textile products and mechanical and electronic products are the three main industries which suffer great loss because of the strict Green barriers. Since these three products constitute the majority of Chinese exportation, we can easily draw a conclusion: \the major obstacles in Chinese exportation.
4. Countermeasures to the Green barriers of the developed countries
As mentioned above, it is a fact that the Chinese export products are facing Green - 2 -
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barriers of the developed countries and has suffered great loss. Therefore Chinese exporters should think carefully about the countermeasures to eliminate the unfavorable influences of such measures. First, we should make full use of the preferential treatment to the developing countries stipulated in the Agreement of Green trade barrier. According to the provisions of the Agreement of Green trade barrier, developed countries should take account of the special development, financial and trade needs of developing country members with a view to ensuring that such Green regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures do not create unnecessary obstacles to exports from developing countries. So, as a developing member of WTO, China is entitled to such preferential treatment. Secondly, China should make use of the Dispute Settlement System of WTO to protect her interests. Different from GATT, WTO has set up a powerful dispute settlement system to solve the disputes between the members of WTO. So, if our interests are harmed by the unfair Green barriers of other WTO members, we can resort to Dispute Settlement Body to settle this dispute and urge other members to change their unfair practices so as to protect our interests. Thirdly, China should stress the protection of environment and take measures to improve the quality and Green level of her export products to meet higher Green standards, which will fundamentally solve the problem of Green barriers.
References
[1] John, Smith. 2007, Green trade protectionism to Chinese agricultural product export influence Economics ,4,34-56.
[2] Anderson, J.L., 2001, The Greening of World Trade Issues, Journal of Marketing Research, 24, 347-356.
[3] Gallagher, R., 2003, International Trade in Agricultural Products, Journal of General Management, 3, 1, 43-62.
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经济研究杂志, 2006, 11: 24-27.
绿色贸易壁垒及其对中国对外贸易的影响
萨金特
莱斯大学经济管理学院
摘 要:近年来,绿色消费在许多发达国家中已成为一个主要的消费趋势,这些发达国家开始采取严格的措施来限制一些国家的产品进入其国内市场。这些国家主要是其产品低于发达国家制定的环境保护标准。
关键词:绿色壁垒;产品;贸易
近年来,绿色消费在许多发达国家中已成为一个主要的消费趋势,这些发达国家开始采取严格的措施来限制一些国家的产品进入其国内市场。这些国家主要是其产品低于发达国家制定的环境保护标准。这些规定对发展中国家的出口有许多不利的影响,这些规定一般被称为“绿色贸易壁垒” 。绿色贸易壁垒的有关规定与世界贸易组织的有关协议相一致。绿色贸易壁垒的定义是:以保护整个人类赖以生存的自然环境和保护人体健康为的名义,制定一系列的规则条款,以达到发达国家保护其国内市场和国内产品的目的。
一、 分析绿色贸易壁垒的形成原因
首先,生态环境的恶化是绿色贸易壁垒形成的主要原因。随着工业和技术的发展,社会经济飞速发展,人民生活水平得到显著改善。但与此同时,经济的发展也以生态环境的破坏为代价。环境问题已经引起社会公众的注意而且国际社会也已开始制定法律来保护生态环境。在1972年6月,联合国发表的斯德哥尔摩宣言,强调了保护环境的重要性。从那时起,越来越多的人开始关注的环境问题。环境的概念应景影响人类生活的各个层面,在社会公众的压力下发达国家开始制定严格的措施来保护生态环境。这也就逐渐形成了国际贸易的绿色壁垒。
其次,国与国之间在技术水平,环境标准和对外直接投资等方面的差异导致了绿色贸易壁垒的形成。正如我们所知,发达国家在社会整体水平和科学技术水平上远远领先发展中国家。即使他们作出非常严格的环境保护标准,其国内的产品可以达到严格的环境保护标准的要求,而这些标准则可能对来自发展中国家的产品构成障碍。事实上,这些标准有可能成为对来自发展中国家产品歧视的一种手段,并构成国与国之间任意或不合理的歧视。
第三,在一些发达国家,贸易保护主义的抬头,是形成绿色贸易壁垒的一个很重要的原因。在现代市场经济条件下,竞争与以前相比是越来越激烈了。国内产业直接面临来自其他国家产品的强有力的竞争,他们将敦促各国政府采取有效措施,以保护他们自己免受来自外国产品的冲击。然而由于世界贸易组织的多边谈判,关税已大大降低,使用非关税措施也受到限制。因此,许多发达国家采取的一些法律限制进口,
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