1、Journal of Economic Surveys, 2006, 11: 24-25. Green Barriers Trade and its Influences on Chinas 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 res
2、trict 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 t
3、he 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 Green Barriers to trade. In accordance with the provisions of the Agreement on Green Barriers to Trade o
4、f WTO, Green Barriers to Trade is defined as 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 ma
5、rket and domestic products. 1. Analysis on the causes of formation of Green Trade Barriers Firstly, the worsening of ecology is the major reason for Green Barriers. With the development of industry and technology, the economy increases very fast and the human life has been improved. But at the same
6、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 th
7、e 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 environmental protection rules under the p
8、ressure of public, which forms a barrier to the international trade. Secondly, the differences between countries in technology, environmental standards and investment directly cause the Green Trade Barriers. As we know, developed countries surpass the developing countries in science and technology.
9、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 th
10、e 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 domest
11、ic 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
12、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 accorda
13、nce 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 wi
14、ll constitute a Green barrier to trade. 2.1 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
15、developing countries. Such high Green standards will in fact constitute a barrier to the products from 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 packe
16、d 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 inspectio
17、n 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
18、barriers on Chinas foreign trade China has suffered great loss due to the Green barriers. In 2002, vegetables from 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 Eu
19、ropean 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
20、 of $7.4 billion in 2002 due to Green barriers trade. Chinas export to EU, Japan, Korea and other countries decreases notably. 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 Chineseexportation, we can easily draw a conclusion: Green barriers to trade has become one of the major obstacles in Chinese exportation. 4. Countermeasures to the Green barriers of the developed
