For example, green trade barriers and China's foreign trade export development countermeasures.
Breaking through the Green Trade Barriers and Realizing the Sustainable Development of Agriculture in China.
Fu Erlin (Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Guangdong Provincial Party School, Guangdong Administration College, Guangdong)
[Abstract] This paper holds that although green barriers are subjective, some of which violate the rules of the WTO, on the whole, green barriers conform to the spirit of sustainable development and play a role in protecting human, animal and plant health and the environment, so it is an unavoidable objective reality. On the one hand, we should use the relevant rules of WTO to solve the trade disputes caused by green barriers. At the same time, it is more important to improve the ecological environment of agricultural production and improve the quality of agricultural products, which is not only the need to break through the green trade barrier, but also the inevitable choice to realize the sustainable development of agriculture in China.
[Keywords:] green barriers; Agricultural sustainable development
[China Library Classification Number] F323 122 [Document Identification Number] A [Document Number]1000-6249 (2002) 07-0031-04
With China's entry into WTO, tariff barriers will be less and less obstacles to China's trade export, but non-tariff barriers, especially green barriers, have caused great obstacles to China's agricultural export, and this obstacle is still developing. What attitude should we take in the face of fierce wolves? What are the future strategic countermeasures? This paper holds that as long as there is international trade, the international trade war is inevitable, and the globalization of the world economy doomed the long-term existence of the international trade war. However, the green trade war is not only manifested in the trade level, but also reflects the strength of a country's ecological environment and the level of sustainable development. The emergence and strengthening of green trade barriers are not only formed by human activities to protect national interests, but also an inevitable choice for human beings to pursue a higher quality of life and achieve sustainable development. The formation of green barriers is subjective, but generally it conforms to the development law of objective things. Therefore, on the one hand, we should take the initiative to meet the green barrier, on the other hand, we should use the rules of the game of international trade to meet the challenge and protect ourselves. On the other hand, it is more important to improve the environmental quality of China's agricultural products, which is not only the need to break through the green trade barriers, but also the inevitable choice to improve the quality of life of China's 654.38+0.2 billion population and realize the sustainable development of China's agriculture.
First, the crisis brought by green barriers to the export of agricultural products in China
Although the formation of green barriers is only nearly 10 years, it has become increasingly global and shows a trend of accelerated development. In particular,1At the Third WTO Ministerial Conference held in Seattle, USA on October 30th, 1999 165438, the member countries conducted extensive discussions on environmental and trade issues. Since then, green trade barriers have become an unavoidable reality in world trade. With China's accession to the WTO, the role of tariff barriers will become smaller and smaller, but the role of non-tariff barriers will gradually emerge. The impact on China's agricultural trade is the most profound. Green barriers are mainly manifested in two aspects: the quality requirements of agricultural products themselves and the quality requirements of production environment.
(1) The requirements for packaging, inspection, safety and hygiene of agricultural products are getting higher and higher, thus forming a green non-tariff barrier that hinders trade. China has long attached importance to the quantity of agricultural products and neglected the quality of agricultural products. Harmful substances such as pesticide and fertilizer residues, radioactive residues and heavy metals in agricultural products have not attracted enough attention. The sudden green trade barrier has caused great losses to China's agricultural products export, and the agricultural products export has been in crisis. According to the statistics of relevant departments, in recent years, the export of agricultural products in China has been rejected 500 to 600 times a year because of excessive pesticides, resulting in economic losses of more than 7 billion yuan. Excessive pesticide residues have become a bottleneck restricting the export of agricultural products in China. Rubin, a former official of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a consultant of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, revealed that from August 2000 to June 2006, in just a few months, the FDA detained 634 batches of food imported from China, mainly because of high pesticide residues, food additives and impurities. In less than three months from June 25th, 2002 to March 5th, 2002, the whole European Union, Norway and Russia successively announced a total ban on the import of animal-derived food from China. On February 19, 2002, the British Food Standards Agency advised British stores to stop selling all honey and mixed honey produced in China. Since then, EU member states have imposed compulsory inspection on China honey in their markets, and sealed up, returned or destroyed unqualified products. Subsequently, Norway, Saudi Arabia and other countries followed suit. Japanese, Canadian, American and Hongkong markets have also strengthened the inspection of Chinese mainland honey. In terms of tea trade, on the one hand, the EU has raised the pesticide residue standard of tea by 100 times, and at the same time, it has increased the number of pesticides restricted and prohibited from 29 to 62, which has reduced China's tea exports to the EU by 37% last year, and many China tea export enterprises that fail to meet the standard are facing the embarrassing situation of being driven out of the European market. The EU even proposed to test environmental conditions, including all aspects of production and processing. According to incomplete statistics, by the end of 200 1, 96 batches of vegetables exported from China to Japan were found to have exceeded the pesticide residues by Japanese customs. While the global organic product market is growing at a rate of 20%-30% every year, the export of agricultural products in China is blocked. This problem must be highly valued. Fortunately, there is no record of China's green food export being blocked, but last year, China's green food export was only $300 million.
(b) Green barriers are also reflected in the production environment or production process. Even if the quality of some products meets the international or local standards, they destroy the ecological environment in the production process. Such products are often prohibited by green barriers in some countries. Some of these green barriers are not allowed by WTO rules, but if consumers in a country consciously resist such products because of the improvement of environmental awareness, then such products will have no market even if they enter various countries.
Second, the objective and realistic environment of agricultural production in China
In order to meet the challenge of green barriers, it is necessary to understand the objective and realistic environment of agricultural products production in China, because the production of agricultural products is directly affected by the natural environment. The overall ecological environment in China is still deteriorating. If this worsening trend is not completely reversed, even the best negotiators in the international trade arena will become more and more passive. The reason that directly affects the quality of agricultural products in China is soil pollution. Because soil pollution has the characteristics of concealment and lag, its harm can only be revealed through the food chain that affects the health of animals, plants and people, so soil pollution is often ignored. There are two main factors that cause soil pollution: one is pesticides and fertilizers, and the other is the "three wastes" discharged in the process of production and life.
(A) China uses a large number of pesticides and fertilizers, causing soil pollution. According to statistics in recent years, the amount of chemical fertilizer used per unit area of cultivated land in China is 2 19 times of the world average. As early as 1990, the area of soil contaminated by pesticides in China accounted for about 1/5 of the country's cultivated land area. In the coming 10 year, the overall environmental situation in China will further deteriorate and the soil pollution will become more serious. Generally speaking, the effective utilization rate of pesticides is only 20%-30%, and most of them float in the air or land on the ground, while most of the latter enter the soil, water and organisms, causing harm through the food chain. According to the latest investigation results of Guangdong Institute of Ecological Environment and Soil, almost all leafy vegetables produced in a city in the Pearl River Delta are polluted by nitrate in different degrees due to excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer, and BHC and DDT can still be detected in a considerable proportion of vegetables. Nitrate pollution in vegetables is also common in large and medium-sized cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Nitrate is transformed into nitrite in the human body and becomes a carcinogen.
(2) The "three wastes" in production and life lead to soil pollution. 85% of industrial wastewater and 8% of industrial waste residue in China are directly discharged into the environment without treatment. The treatment rate of urban sewage is less than 5%, and most of the waste gas is discharged without treatment. Especially due to the development of township enterprises and ineffective environmental protection measures, the ecological environment in the vast rural areas of China has deteriorated, resulting in heavy metals, pathogenic bacteria and radioactive pollution in the soil. It is reported that at present, the cultivated land polluted by heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic, chromium and lead accounts for about1/5 of the total cultivated land in China; Among them, the industrial "three wastes" polluted 6.5438+million hectares of cultivated land, and the farmland irrigated by sewage has reached more than 3.3 million hectares. China produces more than 654.38 billion kilograms of cadmium rice every year, and the mercury pollution area reaches 480,000 mu. The annual mercury Mi Yue was 365.438+0.9 billion kg.
As early as 1980- 1988, the investigation in the developed areas of the Pearl River Delta found that the soil pollution problem in this area was very serious. For example, in a "cadmium rice" area, the cadmium content in teenagers' hair is more than 30 times that in normal areas. With the rapid development of animal husbandry, the pollution of livestock manure can not be ignored, especially in the suburbs of big cities, the problem is more serious. In the suburbs of Shanghai alone, the annual discharge of livestock manure has exceeded 12000000t in recent years. Due to the long-term discharge of N and P from livestock manure and soil and biological pollution, the death of vegetables, fruit trees and lawns in suburbs occurs from time to time. Excessive use of livestock manure has also caused eutrophication of water bodies. At present, the suburbs of Beijing, Wuhan, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and other large and medium-sized cities are also facing the same problem. More than 50% soil samples of vegetable gardens in Nanjing suburbs are no longer suitable for planting vegetable crops, but only suitable for forestry or urban construction, roads and industrial and mining areas.
Three, China agricultural products to deal with the strategic countermeasures of green barriers
(A) to meet the challenge of trade barriers with a positive attitude
At present, there is a one-sided view that green trade barriers are only to restrict imports and protect trade. The so-called protection of human and animal health, ecological environment and natural resources is just an excuse. Therefore, the means to deal with trade barriers is also a question of how to find excuses.
It should be noted that achieving sustainable development, protecting the health of human beings, animals and plants, and protecting the ecological environment and natural resources are the development trends in the world today, especially since the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, achieving sustainable development has become the knowledge of the international community. If a country or region is not keen on sustainable development, it will inevitably leave an image of ignorance, shortsightedness and irresponsibility to human society to the international community, which may be at a disadvantage in international cooperation and competition. On the contrary, it is conducive to international cooperation and competition. Green barrier is formed under this international background. Therefore, the emergence of green barriers conforms to the trend of sustainable development in the world, which is objective and necessary. According to WTO rules, it is reasonable and legal to formulate green barriers. As pointed out in the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, no country should be prevented from taking necessary measures to protect human, animal and plant health and the environment. Therefore, green barriers to trade are inevitable, and we should actively respond to the challenges of green barriers. In fact, green barriers are not only challenges, but also opportunities. By meeting the challenge of green barriers, we can improve the agricultural environment in China and improve the quality of agricultural products. In addition, improving and optimizing the ecological environment in China is also an internal need to realize the sustainable development of China. The goal of ecological environment construction in the next 50 years determined by China's Ninth Five-Year Plan is to basically change the deterioration of the environment by 20 10, so as to obviously improve the urban and rural environment. From 2010 to 2030, the ecological environment will be significantly improved, and a benign eco-economic system that basically adapts to the sustainable development of the national economy will be established nationwide from 2030 to 2050. Therefore, dealing with green trade barriers is in line with our own development goals.
Of course, while understanding the objectivity and necessity of green trade barriers, we should also clearly realize that how to set up green barriers and the level of green barriers are very subjective. Therefore, we must be familiar with the relevant rules of WTO, make full use of these rules, protect ourselves and break through the barriers of others.
(2) Grasp the international quality standards of agricultural products in time and respond quickly.
In order to successfully enter the markets of developed countries, China's agricultural products should not only meet the international food hygiene standards, but also meet the more stringent technical standards formulated by developed countries, and these standards are still being improved. Therefore, we must fully grasp the quality standards of agricultural products and their changes in time, so as to adjust the countermeasures as soon as possible.
For a long time, China has always attached great importance to the quantity of agricultural products and neglected the demand for food safety. It was not until September 18, 20065438 that the Ministry of Agriculture issued the industrial standard of pollution-free agricultural products. What we call "pollution-free agricultural products" generally means that the contents of heavy metals, pesticide residues and nitrates in agricultural products do not exceed the prescribed standards. However, these standards in China are far lower than those in developed countries, and the indicators and standards of toxic organic matter are completely ignored. There are 62 kinds of chemical pollutants in the quality standards of agricultural products in China, mainly including chemical pesticides and pollutants such as arsenic, mercury and cyanide. However, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has so far announced the biggest restrictions on agriculture in 2522 foods, while the United States has only four and other developed countries have hundreds to thousands. Compared with foreign countries, the gap in China is obvious. In addition, some defects of agricultural products in China, such as lax control standards and poor management, make their safety and quality more uncertain.
In addition, a large number of export enterprises in China are very slow to respond to "green" and turn a blind eye to "green barriers". For example, the Tea Committee of the European Union put forward a new standard for pesticide residues in tea as early as 1993, which was implemented in 1996, and then gave a "buffer period" at the request of tea-producing countries. However, during this period, China's tea pesticide residues entering the EU exceeded the standard year by year. For example, the over-standard rate of fenvalerate is 1997, black tea is 16.4%, and green tea is 27.5%; 1998: 42.7% for black tea and 37.9% for green tea. At present, many local government departments in charge of trade in China are not clear about international standard certification, and many enterprises do not know what ISO is, or only know ISO9000, but not ISO 14000. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the work of the government, industry associations, industry intermediary organizations and other relevant departments, increase publicity, and actively guide enterprises to develop healthily into export-oriented agriculture.
(3) standardize the quality standards of agricultural products in China and actively create conditions to pass the recognized quality certification standards.
China's green products, green marketing and green consumption can be described as "vibrant". According to statistics, in recent years, there are as many as 3 18 "green" words about products and enterprises in newspapers and periodicals. However, many so-called "green industries" or "green products" in China, including agricultural products, have no uniform standards. Enterprises or places have been promoting products under the banner of "green", and all kinds of fake and shoddy products covered with "green" coats flood the market. In western developed countries, sound quality standards have been established for major agricultural products. Although China has also promulgated and implemented some food safety and quality standards and regulations, the quality standards of agricultural products in China are still very irregular, and the quality standards of many products are lower than international standards. In order to make China's agricultural products meet the quality standards required by the international market and obtain a "green pass" to enter the international market, we should formulate unified technical regulations and standards for the agricultural product standard system, so as to make the quality supervision and management during and after production in line with international standards. In the process of quality certification and implementation, the work of the central government, local governments and NGOs must be unified. Make the safe production of agricultural products in China move towards the track of institutionalization and legalization.
At the same time, we will give preferential policies to encourage the production of green products and support the construction of green agricultural bases in terms of information, technology, taxation and loans. According to WTO rules, subsidies are allowed if they are not "specific". For example, government subsidies for the production environment of green agricultural products not only have no direct impact on trade, but also help to reduce environmental pollution, so such green subsidies are called normal subsidies and are allowed. At the same time, we should gradually change the commonly used fiscal transfer payment policy in China, make full use of three special subsidies included in the "non-litigation" scope in WTO rules, namely RLD activities (research and competitive development), regional poverty alleviation and environmental protection projects, and put them into the "non-litigation" scope in WTO rules through legislation. At present, the China Municipal Government has established the only green organic food authorization and certification institution)) China Green Food Development Center. The agency has successively established certification cooperation agreements with the United States, Germany and Japan, which has opened up channels for China's green agricultural products to enter the other market smoothly.
(4) Comprehensively improve the agricultural environment and gradually standardize the construction of green bases. China has experienced 5,000 years of civilization, and the most precious wealth left to us is the cultivated land intensively cultivated by several generations. However, at present, the environmental pollution in China has spread from the city to the countryside. In order to protect China's ecological environment and improve the environmental quality of agricultural products, it is necessary to strengthen the comprehensive management of agricultural environment, grassland pastoral areas, fishery waters and other environments, strengthen environmental protection law enforcement, enrich grassroots environmental protection teams, and promote rural ecological environment construction by means of laws, regulations, administration and economy. Especially in the suburbs of large and medium-sized cities, industrial and mining enterprises and other key areas, routine monitoring should be carried out to keep abreast of environmental pollution and losses, and corresponding control measures should be put forward.
At the same time, in strict accordance with the standards of green products, we will gradually improve the construction of green bases in China. All regions should carry out the demonstration base construction of green agricultural products in a planned, sub-regional, step-by-step and focused manner. In the process of industrialization, we should establish brand awareness of agricultural products, establish high-quality agricultural products brands through licensing and quality certification, and adjust and optimize the structure of agricultural products through the market mechanism of high quality and good price.
(5) Increase investment in science and technology and extensively carry out international cooperation.
1. Increase investment in science and technology.
Investment in science and technology is mainly reflected in three aspects: first, the development of green products, second, the production and use of pesticides and fertilizers, and third, the control of soil pollution.
(1) Develop and produce more green products with the international market as the guide and social, ecological and economic benefits as the center. (2) Adjust the structure of pesticides and fertilizers. China lacks new pesticides with high efficiency and low toxicity. Among less than 200 pesticides, 2 1 with the highest yield is mostly highly toxic pesticides. Actively develop pesticides and fertilizers with high efficiency, low toxicity and low residue, and eliminate pesticides with high toxicity and high residue that are extremely harmful to human body. Vigorously promote organic fertilizer projects and reduce the amount of inorganic fertilizers. Gradually guide and develop precision agriculture and change the habit of partial and heavy application of chemical fertilizers. (3) Research, development and introduction of pesticide degradation technology. Some technologies, such as ozone disinfection and degradation technology, have been used abroad for more than 100 years, but they have only been used to solve the problem of pesticide residues in China in recent years.
2. Carry out extensive international cooperation. We should make full use of the "Global Environment Fund" jointly established by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme to provide preferential loans to developing countries in the field of environmental protection, and strive for more funds to invest in agricultural environmental protection and the research and development and production of green agricultural products in China. Actively participate in international and regional environmental technology cooperation, and promote the development of green agricultural products in China through environmental technology transfer.
(Reprinted)