-About green trade barriers
(XX College of Economics and Business)
abstract:
Key words:
With the completion of China's WTO accession negotiations, the date of joining the WTO is getting closer and closer. Lu Liangshu, a famous agronomist and academician of China Academy of Engineering, said that China's accession to the WTO will have a far-reaching impact on agriculture. In the short term, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages; in the long term, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, which brings both development opportunities and challenges.
After China's entry into WTO, China's agriculture will enjoy unconditional MFN treatment from most countries, preferential treatment from developing countries, reduce discriminatory treatment, and use relevant mechanisms to resolve trade disputes, so as to optimize the external environment for China's agricultural exports and create a good international environment for China to use international agricultural markets and resources. With full expression of opinions, China can independently participate in the formulation of new rules, which is conducive to striving for and safeguarding its own interests under the multilateral system. Joining the WTO is also conducive to importing resource-intensive agricultural products with low comparative benefits, such as grain, cotton and oil, and freeing up resources to develop export-oriented labor-intensive agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables, aquatic products and livestock products. After China's entry into WTO, foreign capital will enter China more smoothly, bring advanced agricultural technology and management experience, and improve the management level and production level of agriculture in China. Exchanges and cooperation with international agricultural education, scientific research and technology will be closer and more frequent, thus accelerating the improvement of agricultural science and technology level and the scientific and technological content of agricultural growth. In addition, the agricultural and rural economic systems in China will be further reformed, and the domestic agricultural macro-control system will be established and improved according to the basic laws of market economy. It will also play a positive role in accelerating the reform of foreign trade system and domestic circulation system of agricultural products. Because China needs to abide by the relevant rules of WTO and promise to reduce the degree of protection of agricultural products trade and gradually open the domestic agricultural products market, which means that participating in the liberalization of world agricultural products trade will bring risks and challenges to China's agricultural development. In this regard, it is inevitable that the domestic agricultural products market will face the pressure of opening to the outside world, and agricultural products lacking comparative advantages will face shocks. Agricultural products with intensive cultivated land and low comparative benefit will be more impacted, such as wheat, soybeans, corn, cotton, oilseeds, sugar and sugar materials. For the major soybean and corn producing areas such as Northeast China and North China, the increase in imports will directly put pressure on the production in these areas, and some southern provinces that need feed grain may also directly import corn and soybeans from the international market. In addition, he also believes that the current low level of policy support is not commensurate with China's agricultural scale, which is not conducive to China's adjustment of agricultural production costs and markets through agricultural product price policies, means of production subsidies policies and income policies, and to mobilize farmers' enthusiasm for production.
Finally, Lu Liangshu said that to realize the strategic adjustment of China's agricultural and rural economic structure, we must closely rely on the progress of agricultural science and technology, transform traditional agriculture with modern science and technology, manage agriculture with modern scientific methods, arm farmers with modern scientific and cultural knowledge, improve the scientific and technological content and added value of agricultural products, and improve the quality of agricultural products.
1. Environmental protection plays an important role in the WTO system.
(1) WTO laws and regulations on environmental protection
Relevant clauses in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: 1. Article 2 of GATT determines the tariff system of environmental protection. Paragraph 2 of this article stipulates that a contracting state may levy taxes and fees on any imported product at any time, and paragraph (a) stipulates that a country may levy "a fee equivalent to the domestic tax levied according to paragraph 2 of Article 3 of this agreement for the same product or article that wholly or partially manufactures or produces the imported product"; That is to say, only on the basis of the second paragraph of Article 3-national treatment, can a country freely apply the second paragraph of Article 2 and impose special tariffs on the same imported products for the purpose of protecting the environment. 2. Article 1 1 stipulates the quantitative limit of environmental protection. Article 1 1 of GATT stipulates: "No contracting party may establish or maintain quotas, import and export licenses or other measures to restrict or prohibit the import of products from the territory of other contracting parties, or export or sell export products to the territory of other contracting parties". According to this regulation, general quantitative restrictions are not allowed. Unless it belongs to the three exceptions specified in Article 1 1 or the exception specified in Article 20, all three exceptions specified in Article 1 1 can be regarded as related to environmental protection. 3. Article 20 provides a general exception. This article stipulates that contracting parties may take the following measures to protect the environment: "… (b) measures necessary to protect the life or health of human beings, animals and plants; ..... measures taken to protect cultural relics of artistic, historical or archaeological value in the country; (g) Relevant measures to effectively protect natural resources that may be exhausted, in coordination with domestic measures to restrict production and consumption; However, the contracting parties must abide by the principle of non-discrimination, and shall not make arbitrary or unreasonable differential treatment to countries in the same situation because of environmental protection measures, nor shall they constitute disguised restrictions on international trade.
(2) the provisions of other WTO agreements
1. Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization. In its preamble, the World Trade Organization points out that it will seek to protect the environment and promote the goal of sustainable development within the framework of the multilateral trading system. 2. Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. The agreement stipulates that the contracting parties may formulate technical regulations as long as it is to protect the lives, health and environment of people, animals and plants and does not constitute arbitrary or unreasonable differential treatment or disguised restrictions on international trade. 3. Agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures. The agreement stipulates that environmental subsidies can be considered if it helps to eliminate serious environmental pressure and the most appropriate environmental measures are taken. If these subsidies meet the criteria of non-actionable subsidies, they will not be bound by dispute settlement actions. Agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary measures. According to the agreement, the contracting parties have the right to choose the appropriate level of transmission or import of diseases carried by animals and plants, as well as the content of harmful substances causing diseases in additives, pollutants, toxins, food, beverages and feed, so as to protect the lives or health of people, animals and plants within their jurisdiction. 5. Agreement on agriculture. The agreement directly involves the domestic support part of environmental protection, and it puts forward the concept of "green subsidy". Domestic support measures, such as plans to protect the ecological environment and direct green subsidies to farmers, are not included in the reduction of the harm of modern agriculture to the environment stipulated in the agreement. 6. General Agreement on Trade in Services. Articles 6 and 7 of the agreement are related to environmental protection. Article 14 on the general exception of trade in services means that contracting parties shall not restrict or discriminate against international trade in services, unless it is to protect people's lives and health. 7. Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights. The agreement encourages countries to conduct more research, innovation, transfer and use of environmental protection technologies.
Second, China's accession to the WTO will promote environmental protection in China.
The overall impact of China's entry into WTO on China's sustainable development strategy should be that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. One of the most important and direct points is that it is beneficial for foreign environmental protection technology and environmental protection funds to enter the environmental protection industry in China, thus promoting the development of environmental protection industry in China.
1, China's accession to the WTO is conducive to foreign environmental protection technology and environmental protection funds entering China's environmental protection industry. Environmental protection industry includes the development, production and sales of environmental protection products, as well as the design, construction and operation of environmental protection engineering facilities. Development, transfer and trading of environmental protection technologies, environmental protection consulting services, comprehensive utilization of "three wastes" resources, ecological environment protection and construction, and development of pollution-free products and technologies. At present, China's environmental protection industry mainly focuses on the development and production of environmental protection machinery products and the comprehensive utilization of "three wastes", while other aspects are relatively weak. China's environmental protection products are low in technical content, poor in matching, and low in standardization and serialization. As a new economic growth point, the development and cooperation prospect of environmental protection industry is very attractive. Our government has announced the national sustainable development strategy, and plans to complete 1000 environmental protection projects in 20 10. The state has listed the environmental protection industry as one of the key areas for medium and long-term investment in the future. However, China's environmental protection industry has not yet formed economies of scale. Enterprises that produce environmental protection products are mainly small and scattered, and have not yet formed a big industrial climate. Most enterprises have low technical content in their products. The industrial structure of environmental protection is also unreasonable. In recent years, although the technical level of environmental protection industry has been greatly improved, the transformation speed of technical achievements and the formation of productivity are slow, which makes the technical content of most environmental protection products still low. After China's accession to the World Trade Organization, it will further open up the mainland environmental protection market and upgrade the technical and structural level of the environmental protection industry.
2. Joining the WTO is beneficial to the adjustment of China's industrial structure, the proportion of service industry will be greatly increased, and the proportion of resources and environmental industries will be reduced. Service industry is a promoting factor of economic development. At present, the service industry accounts for 70% in developed countries, while China only accounts for 30%. After China's entry into WTO, opening up the service industry will make China's economic growth rely more on low resource consumption and high added value. On the other hand, it will give full play to the advantages of the service industry in absorbing employment, reduce the employment pressure in China, and create conditions for the coordinated development of population and resources.
3. The environmental protection purpose of joining WTO will make many products with high pollution and high energy consumption lose the market and shrink in scale. Under the background of market opening and new situation, if China enterprises want to occupy a place on the international stage, they must speed up the transformation of operating mechanism, realize scale operation as soon as possible, and change from resource-based production and operation mode to technology-based and knowledge-based operation mode. China enterprises must change their ideas, make full use of domestic and foreign resources and domestic and foreign markets, and strive to develop, produce and sell products with high technology content and high added value. These changes are conducive to the protection of China's natural resources and environment.
4. On the one hand, the reduction of tariffs will make it more likely for China enterprises to import foreign products as raw materials, which will help ease the domestic environmental pressure; On the other hand, it will be very beneficial for China to export non-resource agricultural products, such as aquatic products, vegetables and fruits, and some animal husbandry products. Increasing the import of basic agricultural products that occupy a lot of resources is conducive to the adjustment of agricultural structure and the protection of natural ecological environment in coastal developed areas with shortage of land resources.
Of course, China's accession to the WTO also has some adverse effects on China's environmental development, which are mainly reflected in the following aspects: differences in environmental standards lead to the spread of environmental pollution; The increase in consumption of environmental factors caused by investment expansion; Due to the massive increase of traffic, roads are expanded, animal and plant resources are reduced and traffic pollution is increased; Trade liberalization pays attention to the immediate benefits of resources and ignores the long-term environment and costs. Since we have joined the WTO, what we should do in the future is to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, give full play to positive factors and reduce negative effects.
Third, the formation of "green trade barriers" for China's entry into WTO.
After the Uruguay Round negotiations, tariffs were further reduced and traditional non-tariff barriers were gradually abolished. There is little room for using tariffs and traditional non-tariff means to restrict imports. At the same time, with the economic development and the improvement of people's living standards in developed countries, people pay more attention to human health and the quality of the surrounding environment, so they prefer products that are beneficial to the environment and resist products that are harmful to human health and the ecological environment. So "green trade barrier" came into being as a non-tariff barrier. The so-called green trade barrier, also known as green barrier, refers to a series of environmental trade measures formulated by a country on the grounds of protecting the environment in international trade activities, so that foreign products can not be imported or restricted to a certain extent, thus achieving the purpose of protecting domestic products and markets. Green trade barriers are usually divided into two categories: one is government-led green barriers; The other is a non-government-led green barrier. The contents of green trade barriers mainly include environmental import surcharge, green technical standards, green environmental standards, green market access system, and consumers' awareness of green consumption. Bringing environmental protection measures into the rules and objectives of international trade is the general trend of environmental protection development. Due to the public and politicians' concern for the environment in western countries, environmental protection has gradually become a weapon to serve the protectionist policies of various countries and a bargaining chip in international trade negotiations.
The "green trade barrier" has a far-reaching impact on the trade of China enterprises: firstly, due to economic and technical information and other reasons, the speed and scale of implementing environmental standards such as ISO 14000 in China will be greatly delayed, which will affect the market access and competitiveness of China products; Secondly, due to the different industrial structure, there are many highly polluting industries in China, and the implementation of ISO 14000 in these industries requires a lot of environmental protection investment, which will affect the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises in the short term; Thirdly, because the scale of enterprises in China is generally small, the sales volume is low, and there is a lack of abundant funds and high-quality personnel, the cost of implementing environmental governance is expensive, and enterprises with small sales volume cannot afford these costs; Finally, because the technical working groups that formulate ISO 14000 series standards are all from developed countries, they often only consider their own interests while ignoring the national conditions of developing countries, which will put forward requirements beyond the actual situation for enterprises in developing countries.
Fourth, the significance of China's accession to the WTO to agricultural trade and economy.
From the fact that 135 economies in the world have successively joined multilateral organizations such as GATT and WTO, so far no member has withdrawn, more than 30 economies are trying to apply for membership, and China has made unremitting efforts in 13, it can be seen that joining multilateral organizations has a very positive significance for a country's long-term development. Although China needs to pay a certain "entry fee" to join the World Trade Organization, it may have some temporary negative effects. But as long as you come up with countermeasures, the positive impact will definitely outweigh the negative impact:
1. is conducive to China's faster and better integration into the international economic society.
World economic integration and globalization are the mainstream of world economic development. Joining this mainstream can fully share the benefits of international division of labor and keep pace with the world's advanced economy and technology. Joining the World Trade Organization can help China's economy better integrate into the international economy and society, make better use of international resources and the optimal resource allocation function of the international market, and develop China's socialist market economy.
2. It is conducive to safeguarding the economic interests of China.
WTO is one of the three global international economic organizations, and it is called "Economic United Nations". WTO has the function of formulating and managing the world economic and trade order. At present, WTO rules are mainly formulated by developed countries such as the United States and Europe. Joining the WTO will give China a greater say in the international economic arena and make greater contributions to the establishment of a fair and rational new international economic order and safeguarding the interests of developing countries, including China.
3. It is conducive to promoting the economic system reform in China.
WTO is a multilateral order based on market economy. China's accession to the WTO is consistent with China's reform goal of establishing a market economy. We can consolidate the achievements of China's economic system reform and vigorously promote the perfection and perfection of China's market economy with reference to WTO rules.
It is beneficial to expand export trade.
After China's entry into WTO, China can get multilateral, stable and unconditional MFN treatment, and get special preferential treatment such as GSP as a developing country, which is conducive to the diversification of the market and the substantial growth of China's export trade, and textile and clothing exports will benefit the most in the short term. As China is not yet a member of the WTO, China's exports are often discriminated against. For example, some countries, such as China, can't get GSP treatment, and some countries have quota restrictions. In other countries, China is regarded as a "non-market economy country". In anti-dumping cases, the price or production cost of analogy countries are subjectively chosen as the basis to measure the dumping rate of China's export products, which leads to more and more anti-dumping cases against China. After China's accession to the WTO, when there is a trade dispute with other countries, we can solve the trade dispute fairly and reasonably through the WTO trade dispute settlement mechanism and safeguard the interests of China and enterprises.
5. Conducive to the introduction of foreign investment.
After China's accession to the WTO and the implementation of relevant WTO agreements, China's domestic market, especially the service market, will be more open. The export ratio of products to foreign-invested enterprises is no longer applicable; Foreign exchange balance constraints no longer exist; The transparency of foreign trade and economic cooperation policies has increased; China will grant national treatment to foreign-invested enterprises. In this way, with the further improvement of the investment environment, the total amount of foreign direct investment will increase substantially and the investment methods will be diversified, thus greatly activating the investment market, expanding the production scale and effectively promoting China's economic development.
6. It is beneficial to stimulate the competitive consciousness of China enterprises.
After China's entry into the WTO, more foreign multinational companies will enter the China market, which will strengthen the competition mechanism, stimulate the competitive consciousness of China enterprises, force domestic enterprises to attach importance to R&D and brand cultivation, increase technical input, and strive to improve the quality of employees and the management level of enterprises. The pressure of competition will prompt state-owned enterprises to speed up the adjustment of economic structure and product structure, and accelerate the process of reorganization, reorganization, union and merger. As the price of imported raw materials falls, it is beneficial to reduce the production costs of some enterprises, thus improving their competitiveness.
7. It is beneficial to China's technological progress.
As a developing country, China urgently needs to introduce foreign advanced technology. As China is not a member of the WTO, major industrialized countries now impose technology export control on China. At the same time, because China has not joined the WTO agreement on intellectual property protection, foreign enterprises still have doubts about the legal environment of intellectual property protection in China and are unwilling to sell advanced technology to China. After China's accession to the WTO, the conditions for obtaining high-tech products and advanced technologies will be greatly improved.
8. Conducive to the growth of gross national product (GDP).
According to foreign experts' estimation, China's GDP will increase by 2-4 percentage points after its accession to the WTO.
9. It is conducive to expanding employment opportunities.
After joining the WTO, the scale of investment and export will be further expanded, thus creating more employment opportunities.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) measures to break the "green barrier"
Facing the green barrier, it is imperative for domestic enterprises to be familiar with and master WTO rules as soon as possible. The government and trade associations should seize the time to establish their own standard system, testing institutions and personnel training. We must make sure that the standard system of China products is in line with international standards as soon as possible. Therefore, the following measures should be taken:
1. In order to break this "green barrier", enterprises and government organizations in China should first make full use of the relevant agreements and provisions of the WTO to safeguard their legitimate interests. At present, the relevant provisions of the World Trade Organization agreement dealing with environmental issues include: 1. Article 20 of GATT: Policies that affect the protection of human, animal and plant life or health in the trade of goods are not subject to the normal disciplines of GATT under certain conditions. 2. Technical barriers to trade (i.e. product and industrial standards) and sanitary and phytosanitary measures clearly meet environmental objectives. Third, agricultural products: environmental protection plans are exempt from cutting subsidies. 4. Subsidies and countervailing: In order to adapt to the new environmental law, subsidies are allowed to reach 20% of the company's cost. V. Intellectual property rights: The government may refuse to issue patents that endanger the life and health of people, animals and plants or seriously damage the environment (Article 27 of the Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights). Article 14 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services: Under certain conditions, policies that affect the lives or health of the insured, animals and plants are exempted from normal service trade and discipline.
2. China's sustainable trade system should be established and adjusted. It is necessary to change the traditional development model that consumes a lot of resources, energy and pollutes the environment, and increase the promotion of the green growth model; On the export side, by establishing a green product production system, adjusting and optimizing the export product structure, we will strive to occupy a place in the emerging global environmental protection technology and equipment market; On the import side, by actively introducing clean production technology and environmental protection equipment, the sustainable development ability of environmental protection products will be improved; Strictly control the import of products that do not meet environmental protection standards, especially to prevent the transfer of industrial waste in developed countries.
3. Product standardization and quality certification should be done as soon as possible. China enterprises started late in this field. In order to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises in the international market, we should do the following work at present: publicize and urge enterprises to actively adopt international standards, especially pay attention to the far-reaching impact of ISO 14000 on international trade; Promote the technological progress and product renewal of enterprises; Improve the aesthetic quality of products; Provide information services for enterprises and improve their competitiveness in the international market; Actively create conditions and implement product certification system.
Concluding remarks
Whether the sustainable development strategy can be really implemented is one of the most important problems that China will face after its entry into WTO. In order to achieve the goal of sustainable development, the international community and countries have adopted a series of environmental protection treaties and regulations, and the WTO has also urged trade to be closely linked with the environment, which is a severe test for China's environmental protection. Only by further improving environmental resources legislation and strengthening environmental law enforcement, especially formulating and implementing laws and regulations related to international standards, can we better enhance our ability to participate in international trade and protect the environment, coordinate the relationship between free trade and environmental protection, and realize sustainable development.
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