Green barrier refers to the trade barrier in the field of international trade. Some countries rely on their scientific and technological advantages to protect the environment and human health, and restrict the access of foreign goods through legislation or strict mandatory technical regulations.
Green barrier is caused by the increasingly serious ecological disaster in the world. The formation of early green barriers was mainly to protect the ecological environment and human safety. Later, with the improvement of consumers' environmental awareness and the rise of the global green consumption movement, the development of green barriers was promoted. Especially after the Uruguay Round negotiations, tariffs, as the main form of trade barriers, gradually decreased, and traditional non-tariff barriers were gradually dismantled. Therefore, there is little room to restrict imports with tariffs and traditional non-tariff trade barriers. As a result, trade and environment, two unrelated issues in the history of world trade, were linked by a green link, and green barriers appeared. Marked by the establishment of 1995 WTO Committee on Trade and Environment, green trade barriers began to play an important role in the international trade arena. On1999165438+1October 30th, the member countries held extensive discussions on environment and trade at the Third WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle, USA. At this time, environmental protection, a green trade barrier, has become an unavoidable reality in world trade.
The main manifestations of green barriers are green tariffs, green market access, green countervailing, green anti-dumping, environmental trade sanctions, strict testing standards and other standards, consumers' green consumption choices, mandatory green labels, ISO 14000 certification requirements, cumbersome import inspection procedures and inspection systems, recycling requirements, government procurement, and deposit system.
Although the formation of green barriers is only nearly 10 years, it has become increasingly global and shows a trend of accelerated development. Since 1990s, developed countries have successively formulated a series of "green standards" and "green regulations". Up to now, the international community has formulated 1560 environmental and resource protection treaties, and more and more environmental laws and regulations have been formulated by various countries. For example, Germany has formulated more than 1800 environmental protection laws, regulations and management rules. Many countries attach great importance to food imports. 199 1 year, 32 countries and regions have formulated residue standards for 427 pesticides in food. In the textile industry, at present, the most stringent is the EU eco-textile standard formulated by international environmental protection organizations, which requires every component of clothing products to pass relevant tests and certifications. For those who do not meet the requirements, developed countries have taken various restrictions and punishment measures such as prohibiting and restricting imports. 1996 alone, the value of non-green products banned by EU countries reached $22 billion, 90% of which were provided by developing countries, involving textiles, clothing, cosmetics, daily necessities and so on. 1997 5438+00 In June, EU member states banned the import of seven categories 100 textiles exported by five developing countries and regions in Asia, on the grounds that the products contained chemicals that would cause environmental pollution and affect human health.
Due to the continuous expansion of green barriers, China exports textiles, paints, coatings, building materials, cleaning products, paper, paper products, controlled substances related to ozone layer protection and their products, mechanical products, shoes and rubber products. Have been affected to varying degrees. In addition, most of China's exports are labor-intensive products, which are greatly influenced by environmental factors, so more and more export products are influenced by environmental laws and regulations in developed regions and countries.
These standards, which have a serious impact on China, mainly include pesticide residues in food, lead content in ceramic products, pentachlorophenol residues in leather, organic chlorine content in tobacco, safety indicators of mechanical and electrical products and toys, lead content in gasoline, automobile emission standards, recyclability indicators of packaging materials, textile dyes indicators, and controlled substances for protecting the ozone layer.
Second, the impact of green barriers on China textile export trade
1. Present situation of textile export in China
One fifth of China's foreign trade exports are created by the textile industry, which is the largest foreign exchange earning industry. China has maintained its position as the world's largest producer and exporter of textiles and clothing for six consecutive years. China's entry into WTO is the biggest "good" news for China's textile industry. According to the ATC Agreement "WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing", during the five-year transition period, China's textile quota in restricted countries will increase by 25% on the current basis last year, which means that China's textile exports will increase by 50 million US dollars every year. If other countries and regions without restrictions are added, China's textile and clothing exports will increase by at least $654.38 billion per year after China's entry into WTO. However, if we can't break the green barrier, this huge market can only be "the moon in the water"-out of reach. Green barrier will be the most difficult obstacle in China's foreign economic and trade activities, but it must be surmounted.
In China's increasingly extroverted industries, the textile industry has the highest degree of external dependence. Although tariffs with trading partners are getting lower and lower, green barriers are becoming new non-tariff trade barriers. With the deepening of people's concern about the ecological environment, concepts such as "clean production", "green products" and "eco-textiles" have entered the field of international textile and clothing trade on a large scale, and countries have put forward higher requirements for the safety of textiles and clothing during wearing. Facing the green barrier, the original comparative advantages of China textile industry, such as low price, will also be impacted. If the product fails to meet the relevant green standards, it will miss a large number of international orders. At present, when some European buyers place orders with domestic enterprises, they are required to write the clause of "compensation for failing to meet the EU eco-textile standards 10%" in the contract.
From 65438 to 0998, Shanghai's single underwear exported to Germany was forced to stop exporting because it contained azo dyes, reducing the export volume by 5 million US dollars. Not long ago, 300,000 jackets exported from China to the European Union were forced to be sold back because the zipper of the jacket contained excessive heavy metals. A batch of knitted garments exported by Jiangsu Shencheng Group to Germany were fined $6.5438 +0.6 million yuan by middlemen because they did not meet the eco-textile standards agreed in the contract. 704 batches (excluding Ningbo) of textiles and clothing exported by Zhejiang Province in June-June last year (10) were returned, with the return amount of15.86 million USD. Among them, 200 batches of goods in the table, accounting for 28.2%; 504 batches of off-balance-sheet goods, accounting for 7 1.6%. Apart from market factors, inconsistent specifications and poor sewing, most of the reasons are related to green barriers. It can be seen that the development of eco-textiles can effectively overcome green barriers and expand market share.
According to a data of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, as many as $7.4 billion of China's exports are negatively affected by green barriers every year. Experts believe that the impact of green barriers on China's foreign trade exports has exceeded and will exceed the impact of anti-dumping cases, which has become an unavoidable topic after China's entry into WTO.
2. Technical barriers in textile and clothing trade
There are two main types of technical barriers in the field of textiles and clothing: one is the environmental impact barrier in the whole process from product design and production to scrapping and recycling, which mainly requires enterprises to establish and implement "environmental management system" and implement "environmental labels and statements" on products; The other is aimed at the impact of the product itself on the safety and health of consumers, requiring that the product cannot have an impact on the health of consumers. We will be able to overcome these two obstacles and produce products called eco-textiles.
The so-called eco-textiles or eco-garments are textiles that protect human health from harm, have the advantages of non-toxicity and safety, and give people a comfortable, relaxed, natural, fatigue-free and comfortable feeling when using and wearing. Professionally speaking, green clothing must include three aspects: 1, production ecology, that is, environmental protection in production. Used in natural fiber, fertilizer, feed, growth agent, herbicide, disinfectant, etc. Used in the process of planting or feeding should be non-toxic and harmless to human beings; In the process of fabric production and processing, there is no harmful gas emission, and the drainage meets the sanitary requirements; 2. User ecology, that is, user environmental protection. It is required not to bring any poison to users; 3. Treatment ecology refers to the treatment of fabrics or clothes after use. For example, can it be recycled, piled up and burned? For example, the new fiber Tencel, which recently appeared in the clothing market, belongs to green textiles because the chemical reagents in its production can be recycled and the waste can be burned.
In order to control the erosion of pests, plant viruses and weeds and ensure their yield and quality, a large number of pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides are used in the planting process of cotton and linen fibers and other clothing raw materials, resulting in pesticide residues in cotton and linen fibers. Although the content in clothes is very small, it is extremely harmful to the skin after long-term use. Secondly, when storing raw materials, preservatives such as pentachlorophenol, mildew inhibitor and moth-proofing agent should be used. These chemicals remain on clothes, which may cause skin allergies, respiratory diseases or other toxic reactions, and may induce cancer in severe cases. In addition, China's textiles have always followed the traditional process of "spinning-weaving-dyeing and finishing". In the process of knitting, the chemicals used, such as oxidant, catalyst, flame retardant, detergent, whitening fluorescent agent, etc., remain on the clothes again. One of the most harmful treatment processes is printing and dyeing. Modern people pursue colorful life and colorful clothes. More and more colors of dyes have been developed, and cotton textiles have been dyed colorful. Although the goal of "beauty" has been achieved, azo dye intermediates, formaldehyde and halide carriers used in printing and dyeing, and heavy metals that can induce cancer still remain on clothes. In addition, clothing accessories such as zippers and buttons will contain heavy metals such as lead. It can be seen that in the process of becoming a finished product, there are many opportunities to leave toxins. Although countries in the world have different levels of development and environmental awareness, it will be an inevitable trend to develop environmentally friendly textiles and green clothing. For example, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, as a textile county, has an unprecedented good export momentum after China's entry into WTO, but many Shaoxing textiles have been frustrated repeatedly in European countries, and most of the problems are in dyes. It is all because the azo and 19 disperse dyes (several harmful chemical components of dyeing raw materials) in the dyes exceed the standard. 1998, Yongtong Group exported a batch of textiles worth100000 yuan to Europe. After testing, there were chemical components harmful to human body in the cloth, and the result was returned. The goods returned to China across the sea, and the various expenses of returning and transferring almost exceeded the price of the fabric itself. 1 10,000 yuan inexplicably hit Shui Piao, the fabric and color are impeccable, and the problem is still the dye. Therefore, the development of textile industry and printing and dyeing industry is closely linked. Although there are hundreds of enterprises producing dyes in China at present, more than 60% of the market for environmentally-friendly reactive dyes is controlled by foreign big companies such as BASF in Germany, and the price is twice that of domestic enterprises. Because the performance of domestic similar dyes is not stable enough, textile export enterprises are still reluctant to pay high prices for imported dyes. Once imported dyes are used, the original price advantage of China textiles will no longer exist. In recent years, there have been three major changes in the quality inspection requirements of some developed countries' customers for China's export textiles: 1. From the traditional emphasis on appearance quality inspection to internal quality inspection, some foreign businessmen have included the internal quality index of textiles in the terms of the letter of credit; 2. The quality index of textiles is stricter, and many customers will put forward special requirements for the quality index that affects the performance in the contract, and the requirements for the project indexes such as dyeing fastness are obviously improved; 3. The quality requirements for textiles have changed from traditional practicality, beauty and durability to more emphasis on safety and hygiene. Especially since 1990 Austria took the lead in formulating environmental protection textile standards, all countries in the world, especially developed countries in Europe and America, have formulated and promulgated relevant environmental protection regulations and textile environmental protection standards to carry out safety and health inspection on imported textiles. The United States and the European Union also put forward restrictions on non-environmental dyes, and strictly restricted the contents of azo dyes, formaldehyde, pentachlorophenol, pesticides and organic oxides in textiles. The European Union Eco-Textile Standards formulated by international environmental protection organizations require that every component (including buttons and zippers) that constitutes a clothing product must pass relevant testing and certification. Mei Ting underwear, the only underwear enterprise in China that has obtained this certification, has spent nearly a year to establish a set of eco-textile supply chain, and "Mei Ting" has successfully entered the markets of Southeast Asia, Europe and America. Therefore, if domestic textile enterprises want to make a difference in the world, they must study international rules and produce green products with environmental protection certification.
3. Laws and regulations of developed countries to control harmful substances in textiles and clothing and international eco-textile standards
The surging tide of environmental protection around the world has affected the international clothing market. In particular, developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan have established a series of "green trade barriers" by formulating various environmental standards and environmental laws and regulations to restrict and prevent foreign goods from entering their own markets and protect the competitiveness of their own clothing markets. On the premise of protecting the environment and health, they strengthened environmental safety through various environmental protection laws and regulations, made green barriers a new protective net in clothing trade, and put forward various almost harsh conditions for the export of China's clothing products, which led to the repeated obstruction of China's clothing exports. As early as 1975, Japan began to implement the law on the control of harmful substances in household products, in which the formaldehyde residue limit on the clothes of infants aged two and under (especially those that come into direct contact with the skin) is 20ppm；; Japan's Product Liability Law (1995) also stipulates that victims can apply for compensation for the defects of finished garments caused by poor dyeing, such as skin injury, foreign matter mixing, burning accident and special accident. 1997, the EU banned the use of pesticides containing toxic metal compounds in cotton cultivation; German food and daily necessities act 1994 stipulates that allergic disperse dyes should not be detected in textiles; From 1 99965438+1October1,clothing, leather, clothing, bedding, home fabrics, etc. Azo dyes containing carcinogenic aromatic amines using 1 18 cannot be sold in the German market. At present, the EU has also legislated on this. (See EU Directives 76/769/EEC, 89/677/EEC, 94/60/EC and 97/ 10/EC). The implementation date of this directive is July 1 day, 2002, which means that textiles exported to EU 1 day this year must comply with EU regulations. The federal regulation of the United States 16 CFR 1303 stipulates that lead-containing paint in the surface coating of garment accessories should be prohibited. Sweden, Finland, Norway and other countries have also enacted laws one after another, and made strict regulations on harmful substances in clothing and textiles, such as formaldehyde, phthalates and asbestos.
In the early 1990s, 13 research institutions in Europe, such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland, established the "International Textile Ecological Research and Inspection Association" and issued standards such as OKO- Tex Standard 100 (product standard) and Oko-Tex Standard 200 (inspection standard). After nearly 10 years of development and research, this set of standards has been revised and improved. At present, there are research institutions in 14 countries and regions, and there are two certification institutions in France and Germany respectively. At present, there are four main categories of eco-textiles that have passed the standard 100 test and been awarded environmental labels. One is baby products, which refers to all products, basic materials and accessories used to make babies or children under two years old except clothing; The second category is products that come into direct contact with the skin, such as uniform shirts and underwear; The third category is products that are not in direct contact with the skin, such as fillers and linings; The fourth category is decorative materials, including raw materials and accessories, all products used for decoration, such as white cloth, wall covering, furniture cloth, curtains, carpets and mattresses. It can be said that textiles with environmental protection labels ensure the health of consumers to the greatest extent.
Oko-Tex standard 100, version 2000 stipulates that the items to be tested include: PH value, formaldehyde content, heavy metal ion content, pesticide, chlorophenol, PVC plasticizer, dye, chlorine-containing organic carrier, color fastness, volatile matter, odor determination, etc. The inspection procedure standard matched with OKO- Tex standard 100 is OKO-TEX standard 200, which includes the specific operation procedures and technologies of inspection items. The testing methods and requirements of green clothing in developed countries are gradually improving. They use high-tech, high-sensitivity testing equipment for accurate analysis, with high standards and strict requirements. Therefore, it is of great significance for China's textile enterprises to understand the access rules of developed countries and obtain the passes recognized by these countries.
Third, the development of China textile foreign trade thinking
1. Strengthen the construction of eco-textile standards
With the expansion and development of international trade, standardization has become an important tool for international market competition. Relying on advanced standards for commercial competition has become a new trend in international trade. Standard is the premise of quality. It is an urgent task for enterprises and standard-setting departments in China to improve product competitiveness from the perspective of standards.
In the field of eco-textiles, there is no mandatory national standard except that China Environmental Label Certification Committee has an eco-textile standard formulated with reference to EU standards. China's backwardness in standardization is in sharp contrast with the developed countries' emphasis on standardization. These China enterprises that encounter "green barriers" in the international market often feel aggrieved. A document of the National Standardization Committee shows that less than 50% of China's 19278 national standards adopt international standards and foreign advanced standards, and high-tech standards are seriously lacking. Because there are no relevant laws and regulations, there is no special organization to carry out compulsory inspection of clothing before entering the market. At present, the country has realized this problem and is formulating a general national standard for textile safety.
In order to deal with the green barriers in international trade, the National Standards Committee began to investigate the standards of China's bulk export products from 200 1, and textiles are one of them. It is urgent to build a textile safety system. 1In May 1997, the China Environmental Management System Certification Steering Committee was established to uniformly deploy and implement the ISO 14000 series standards; 1998 issued the detection standards for banned azo dyes, heavy metals and formaldehyde in GB/T 17592, GB/T 17593 and GB/T 29 12 textiles. In June 2000, the Technical Requirements for Eco-textiles of Environmental Labeling Products was promulgated, and in August 2006, 5438+0, GB 1840 1 promulgated the formaldehyde content limit of textiles. At present, two textile safety standards are being drafted-general standards for textile safety and general technical conditions for eco-textiles. The former has made the most basic requirements for some indicators that affect human health, and it is expected to play a certain role in adjusting product structure and restricting imports. The latter is equivalent to adopting the "European eco-textiles" standard, aiming at putting forward higher requirements for export-oriented enterprises. Eco-textiles not only represent the new trend of global consumption and production, but also become a means for developed countries to use green barriers to restrict imports. With China's entry into WTO, green barriers have become increasingly prominent in textile and garment trade. Therefore, eco-textiles will be one of the best ways to deal with green barriers and expand international market share, and will become a new economic growth point of textile industry.
At present, China has issued nearly 90 national standards related to textile safety, including 70 methods for testing textile color fastness, 2 methods for testing formaldehyde, 9 methods for testing flammability, 4 methods for testing acidity and alkalinity, 3 methods for testing banned azo dyes, and 1 item for testing heavy metal ions. Although China has made some progress in the standardization of eco-textiles, it is still in its infancy, and there is still a gap with developed countries. We must catch up urgently.
2 foreign trade textile and garment enterprises should actively adopt advanced standards to guide production.
Some people say that from the perspective of developing countries, the green barrier is a green, beautiful-sounding wall that straddles the already bumpy road of international trade. Because she is beautiful, she can't be dismantled like a tariff barrier. Our best choice is to take the barrier as a pier, build a green bridge between our feet and the barrier, climb the slope and reach the other side.
Then adopting international and foreign advanced standards to organize production and enhance environmental awareness is the starting point of enterprise success. Shaoxing Yongtong Dyeing and Weaving Group was an unknown private enterprise more than 10 years ago. After experiencing the lessons of 1998 exported to the European Union, it learned from a painful experience and took it as an important task to understand the technical requirements of developed countries and study their technical regulations and standards. Through technical transformation, three national champions in the printing and dyeing industry were created last year, and foreign trade exports exceeded $6,543.8 billion. In the first three months of this year, the export of products increased by 60% compared with the same period of last year, which surprised people in the industry again and again. They paid the tuition fee of 6.5438+0 million yuan, and then earned back the big market of 1 100 million dollars. This is the sweetness after breaking through the green barrier. Yongtong people find that it is a world trend to be green and harmless to the human body. If this fails, it will definitely be eliminated by the world market, especially the high-end markets in Europe and America. To seize the commanding heights of the international market, we must strengthen the "green" consciousness of products.
After breaking the green barrier, Yongtong Group, like mastering the secret of Alibaba's "open sesame", successfully opened the European market and firmly occupied the share of the world market. Nowadays, with the overall decline of domestic environmental protection dye prices, the benefits of Yongtong Group have been significantly improved. The green barrier is not terrible, the key is to have the courage to cross it. Whoever acts early will win. Zhejiang has many successful examples like Yongtong Group. Hangzhou Huili Embroidery Clothing Co., Ltd., which was once returned because of button environmental protection problems, has now specially identified four designated factories to produce environmentally-friendly buttons, and more than 8 million pieces of women's wear are exported to European and American markets a year. Last year, Huili's list reached more than 70 million dollars. At present, Huili company's customers include dozens of women's clothing brands from four major consortia around the world, with a daily production of more than 20,000 pieces. I used to be afraid of doing European and American markets. Now, after production in strict accordance with environmental protection standards, I find that the European and American markets have unlimited scenery and business opportunities!
After China's entry into WTO, textile and garment enterprises can only survive in the international environment if they are truly in line with international standards. "Connecting with the world" means to "straighten out" the real strength of equal dialogue in enterprise management ability, scientific and technological level, standard application, fast information and market operation concepts and means. At present, clothing rapid response has become the development trend of the world clothing industry. In the United States, 65% of garment enterprises participated in the rapid response, grasped the formulation and revision of domestic and foreign textile technical regulations and standards in real time, and greatly improved the competitiveness of enterprises. But at present, China is still generally studying and publicizing this kind of information, or only a few large enterprises will pay attention to it. We must pay attention to this problem.
3. Actively promote eco-textile certification.
The theme of sustainable development of textiles in 2 1 century is to develop green textiles. In recent years, countries all over the world are actively developing "eco-label" products that are beneficial to health and environmental protection. The United States, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Britain and other countries are promoting "eco-label", which is similar to China's environmental label certification. At present, "eco-label" is developing rapidly all over the world. Many countries that implement eco-labelling regard eco-labelling as a non-tariff barrier and prohibit the import of non-eco-labelled products. The competitiveness of products with this logo in the international market is generally higher than that of general products.
With the continuous improvement of human awareness of environmental protection, safety and health, a wave of "green consumption" has been set off around the world. At present, many kinds of eco-labels are widely used in the international market, and the most influential eco-labels are Oko-Tex standard 100, Eco-Tex, MST, MUT, CleanFashion, Tex-Proof and so on. These signs have become an international passport for eco-textiles. In recent years, the International Environmental Protection Textile Association has set up offices in China, Hongkong, Shanghai, Japan and South Korea to help the textile industry in these countries and regions join the eco-textile labeling program more quickly. Since 2000, eco-textile certification has been widely promoted in Asia. As a free trade port in Asia, Hong Kong has maintained a consistent development momentum and occupied a leading position in textile ecological certification. Nisenken Company of Japan was approved to become a member of the International Association of Environmentally Friendly Textiles in early 2000, and began to adopt eco-labels for textiles in the Japanese market. Korean and China Taiwan Province manufacturers are also very active, becoming the growth point of Asian eco-textile certification.
Compared with the surrounding areas, the huge textile and garment enterprises in China are not in harmony with the slow development of eco-textile certification. The development of green ecological clothing in China is still in its infancy. 1September, 1999, China formally formulated the Evaluation and Inspection Standard for Eco-textiles, which was specifically responsible by China Textile Academy, and formally studied the performance of eco-textiles, and then formulated the corresponding standards and technical specifications. But generally speaking, the identification, detection and environmental protection signs of clothing pollution in China are still very backward, and there is still a lack of means for environmental protection detection and certification of printed and dyed fabrics. The International Eco-Textile Association, which sets the EU eco-textile standards, has issued 23,000 certificates worldwide, and its only authorized institution in China, Swiss Textile Testing Company, has issued 200 certificates in less than two years. The 200 certified enterprises are more exposed to the international market, so they are more active in applying for eco-textile certification. They have realized that eco-textile certification is an important issue for textile and garment enterprises to improve product quality and enter the international market. As early as more than a year ago, Mei Ting began to improve the product quality from all aspects and established a complete eco-textile supply chain, thus becoming the first and only underwear product in China that passed the EU eco-textile standard formulated by the most stringent international environmental protection organization, and successfully entered the Japanese and European and American markets. In the past, domestic enterprises competed who could make money with more advertisements and lower prices. In the future, it will become who has high technology content and who can obtain authoritative certification to occupy the market. Mei Ting, a product with exclusive intellectual property rights in China, has obtained a "green card" according to the international rules of the game. Therefore, only by making their own products can enterprises defeat foreign rivals in domestic and foreign markets.