After China's entry into WTO, China's international trade is bound to face impacts from all sides. Whether we can adapt to WTO's regulations on environment and trade and break through the increasingly strict environmental barriers in western countries is the key to truly improve China's trade export environment. Keywords: WTO environmental barriers to international trade With the rapid development of the world economy, global environmental problems are becoming increasingly serious, and ecological crisis and environmental pollution are plaguing the whole world. This makes the relationship between environmental protection and international trade more and more close. The World Trade Organization (WTO) linked trade and environmental protection issues and began to formulate a series of rules. Use * * * to solve this kind of problem. After China's accession to the WTO, it must fully fulfill its obligations as a member country, including WTO obligations on environmental and trade issues. In the process of fully integrating with the international market, how to adapt to the agreements reached by the w to multilateral trading system on trade and environmental issues, how to face the trend of green development of the global economy, and how to break through the increasingly strict environmental technical barriers of western developed countries, so as to accelerate the development of China's international trade, are the problems that China must face and urgently need to solve after joining the WTO. I. Contents of WTO on Trade and Environment Issues The WTO has repeatedly pointed out in a series of work reports and announcements such as the Trade and Environment Resolution and the Committee on Trade and Environment that there should be no policy conflict between agreeing to and maintaining a fair, open and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and actions taken to protect the environment and promote sustainable development. The WTO is willing to coordinate policies on trade and environmental protection without exceeding the authority of the multilateral trading system. It can be considered that this is the basic position and guiding principle of WTO on trade and environment issues. However, the WTO does not have a specific agreement to deal with environmental issues, but it is only involved in environmental-related provisions such as the Agreement on Agricultural Products, the General Agreement on Trade in Intellectual Property Rights and Services. GATT gave priority to trade and environment in the eighth Uruguay Round negotiations, and reached the Marrakesh Agreement on Trade and Environment in April 1994. After the Uruguay Round, foreign ministers agreed that the WTO should carry out trade and environment work. 1995 after the establishment of the WTO, in order to strengthen the management of trade and environment within the WTO, the Special Committee on Trade and Environment (CET) was established, and the objectives of achieving sustainable development and environmental protection were included in the introduction of the WTO. On this basis, the WTO has also formulated the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the Agreement on Implementing Sanitary and Quarantine Measures for Animals and Plants. These two agreements are specific agreements reached by the WTO on environmental and trade issues at present, and make specific provisions on the principles that its members should follow when controlling imported products. For example, the Agreement on Animal and Plant Health and Quarantine stipulates that a certain level of animal and plant health protection can be implemented or maintained if there is scientific basis or a member thinks that a high level of protection is appropriate, and stipulates that the appropriate level of protection should be based on the risk assessment brought by the surrounding environment, existing scientific basis, related technologies and production methods and the epidemic situation of special pests and diseases. In addition, the agreement also stipulates that when members are at the critical moment of disease transmission, but lack of scientific basis, animal and plant health protection measures are allowed as preventive measures. The above provisions show that although the WTO advocates free trade, in order to protect the ecological environment and maintain human health, it strengthens the management of its members in the form of agreements and allows them to take corresponding trade restrictions and other measures. At the same time, the WTO also emphasizes the prevention of trade protection under the pretext of protecting the environment. The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade is reached to develop international trade and ensure that technical regulations, standards and certification procedures will not cause unnecessary obstacles to trade. The agreement holds that mandatory standards should be based on scientific data and evidence, and should be based on internationally recognized standards. If, due to geography, climate and other reasons, members cannot take international standards as the basis of their mandatory regulations, they are obliged to publish these regulations in draft form, so as to give their member manufacturers an opportunity to put forward their opinions. In order to prevent the formulation of environmental technical standards from causing unnecessary obstacles to international trade, Article 5, paragraph 4, of the Agreement on the Implementation of Sanitary and Quarantine Measures for Animals and Plants also stipulates that when deciding the appropriate level of sanitary and quarantine protection for animals and plants, members should take into account the goal of minimizing the adverse impact on trade; The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade also requires members to ensure that the formulation and implementation of their technical regulations should not cause unnecessary obstacles to trade. It also stipulates that members can implement "voluntary standards" on the basis of "international standards", but the "voluntary standards" of members should not be too different, otherwise it will bring trouble to international trade. Therefore, the WTO encourages all members to fully participate in the formulation of international standards within the scope of resources. As the largest multilateral trade organization in the world, the WTO is the most authoritative and extensive in managing environment and trade issues, and its agreements on trade and environment issues are also the most influential, which has played an important role in curbing environmental degradation and promoting the sustainable development of trade. However, WTO's regulations on environmental protection have opened up a new "grey zone" for countries to set up environmental-related trade technologies and green barriers. With the issue of environmental protection constantly being put on the development agenda of various countries, various environmental control measures will inevitably have different effects on international trade, thus causing bilateral or multilateral trade frictions. Therefore, environmental and trade issues have become a hot issue of global concern. For China, it is of great significance to understand the relevant provisions and existing problems of WTO in environmental protection and take active measures. Second, the impact of environmental barriers on China's foreign trade export is mainly reflected in two aspects: on the one hand, it restricts the production and trade of many products that seriously pollute the environment and destroy the ecological balance, and the relevant international market will gradually shrink; On the other hand, promote the development and trade of industries and products conducive to ecological protection, green industries and green markets flourish, and the commodity structure of international trade turns green. Due to the differences in economic base, environmental protection and technical level and degree among countries, green barriers have different effects on the trade between developed and developing countries, and the foreign trade of developing countries has been greatly restricted. Developed countries have obvious advantages in this respect, advanced environmental protection technology and developed environmental protection industry. Therefore, they have higher environmental protection requirements for imported goods, which are manifested in the strictness and harshness in environmental protection technical standards, environmental protection technical indicators, testing and evaluation methods. As a developing country, China's export commodities are also affected by the above problems. Green barriers set by developed countries have had a great impact on China's foreign trade export volume, export market scope, export growth rate, export cost and export benefit, and its negative impact on China's foreign trade export has far exceeded "anti-dumping". Due to the restrictions stipulated in the relevant Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, about $5 billion of China's export products are prohibited from being produced and sold; According to the export data of China 1992, the foreign green label system alone affects the export of more than $4 billion. China's export products and packaging can't meet the environmental protection standards of developed countries, and the loss in 1995 is about 200 billion yuan. In addition, foreign countries transfer pollution-intensive industries to China on a large scale through export or direct investment, which further worsens the ecological environment of China and makes it more difficult to export many products (especially agricultural and sideline products). China's extensive business model centered on economic growth for many years is difficult to change substantially in the short term. Limited by consumers' demand for green products, income level, national quality and economic and technological development level, China's green market is small in scale, and it is difficult to develop green industries. Therefore, it is still difficult for China to effectively use the development opportunities provided by green barriers for green product trade. The traditional trade barriers faced by China's foreign trade export will be reduced and eliminated due to its accession to the WTO, the trade restrictions imposed by foreign trading partners on China will be more restricted, and China's exports will increase to a certain extent. However, in order to maintain the balance of payments, avoid the deterioration of terms of trade and protect domestic industries, other countries will still take various measures to protect trade, and green barriers will be more widely used. Moreover, after China's entry into WTO, China's position in international trade has changed, and its preferential treatment and care will be reduced. China is facing greater challenges from environmental barriers. China can naturally resist absolute environmental barriers through relevant institutions according to the relevant provisions of WTO, but due to the complexity and concealment of environmental protection issues, such protection will be limited. China's accession to the WTO will also make it easier to enter the international green market, but its ability to take advantage of this opportunity is very limited. Therefore, at least in the short term, the negative impact of environmental barriers on China's foreign trade exports will not be weakened, but will be more prominent and serious. Therefore, in this situation, how to integrate with international environmental standards, improve the environmental competitiveness of China's export products, and try to meet the environmental protection requirements of importing countries for China's export products is the key to improving China's export trade environment after joining w to. Third, speed up the pace of integration with international environmental standards and improve the environmental competitiveness of China's export products. First, strengthen environmental protection legislation and supervision. On the basis of studying and drawing lessons from international experience, we will comprehensively review China's laws, regulations and policies on foreign trade, foreign investment and environmental protection, clean up the rules that violate the WTO, and establish and improve the relevant laws and regulations system according to the principle of symmetry of developing countries' responsibilities, rights and obligations to the environment. Encourage developed countries such as the European Union, the United States and Japan to implement advanced product environmental standards, production process environmental standards and enterprise environmental management standards. National environmental protection departments, environmental monitoring institutions and environmental research institutions should participate in and help government economic management departments and enterprises to solve information, standards and technical problems related to the environment. Second, establish an effective coordination mechanism between trade and environment (1) Because there are a lot of policies and regulations to be coordinated between foreign trade and environmental protection, it is necessary to establish an effective coordination mechanism between relevant state ministries and commissions, between the central and local governments, especially between foreign trade, environmental protection and quality inspection departments. (2) Strengthen the role of trade associations and encourage more enterprises to actively join the ranks of protecting the ecological environment. Third, actively implement ISO 14000 and strengthen environmental certification and management. Since1July 1996, ISO officially announced the implementation of ISO 14000 series environmental management standards, developed countries and emerging developing countries such as Europe, America and Japan actively responded and promoted their implementation. At present, ISO 14000 is gradually becoming the international language of environmental standards, and is rapidly expanding to. И o140000 system standards mainly include environmental management standards, environmental auditing standards, environmental labeling standards, environmental behavior standards and product life cycle evaluation (LCA) standards. It requires enterprises to adopt the same management system as ISO9000 series standards to establish an environmental management system. Through the establishment and operation of the system, the environmental management policy and environmental objectives are realized, and the continuous improvement and cyclic rise of management are realized according to the plan, implementation, inspection and improvement (PDCA cycle). At the same time, environmental design LCA can be carried out, from product development, design, processing, manufacturing, circulation, use, scrapping and reuse. The product life cycle assessment method makes the product consume less energy and resources in the whole life cycle and has no pollution or less pollution to the environment. When the product is scrapped, it will not produce a lot of garbage, and the recycling ratio is significant. At the same time, it can better meet the requirements of users and consumers, improve the efficiency of development and use, and rationalize the allocation of resources at a higher level. The series standards of Wango14000 require enterprises to adopt "clean technology" in the production process, so as to reduce pollution and the treatment cost of pollutants, and at the same time save and recycle resources and reduce product costs. With the surge of global green tide and trade liberalization, the "green image" of enterprises is becoming more and more important for the survival and development of enterprises, which is also the fundamental reason why many domestic enterprises admire ISO 14000. At present, the international community has formulated more than 150 environmental and resource protection treaties, and countries have also formulated more and more environmental protection laws and regulations. ISO 14000 series standards formulated by the International Organization for Standardization are also barriers in a sense, which actually create trade barriers for countries and organizations with poor information and slow action. Developed countries take a positive attitude towards ISO 14000 series standards, and at the same time use it as an excuse to make demands on developing countries. Therefore, if developing countries want to get rid of the position controlled by them, they must start implementing ISO 14000 quickly. In this sense, ISO 14000 certification is a passport for enterprises to enter the international market. In addition, through the implementation of ISO 14000, China's domestic environmental regulations and standards can be in line with international standards, and the gap with importing countries can be coordinated and narrowed. Fourth, strengthen international cooperation, improve the ability of sustainable development (1) and actively participate in the discussion and negotiation of international trade and environmental issues. Pay close attention to the trade and environmental development trends of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), developed and developing countries and regional organizations, and adjust the trade policies and regulations of various countries in a timely manner based on the principle of sustainable development. (2) Actively promote the formulation of special agreements on trade, investment and sustainable development in WTO negotiations. China's accession to the WTO should not only adapt to the rules of the WTO, but more importantly, it should work with developing countries to promote the reform of the WTO and safeguard the interests of China and developing countries. So as to meet the expectations of developing countries for China. Fifth, use the relevant rules of WTO to protect yourself. Since its establishment, the WTO has always adhered to the principle of benefit sharing, that is, no matter how big or small a country is, rich or poor, it is necessary to improve its economy and living standards, take into account the development level of all countries, and implement a policy of differential treatment. This principle is also reflected in trade and environmental issues. Considering the special problems of developing countries, the preamble of the WTO Agreement stipulates that in order to protect the environment, it is allowed to "strengthen various countermeasures in a way that meets their respective needs at different levels of economic development". We should make full use of this special provision of WTO, make efforts to make environmental standards different from those of developed countries, or carry out them in stages, so as to delay the impact of environmental problems on China's export commodities. To sum up, the development of trade and environmental protection is mutually restricted and promoted. The key lies in how to adjust China's environmental and development policies in a timely and appropriate manner, so as to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and change constraints into promotion. Only in this way can we adapt to the new situation after China's entry into WTO and realize the sustainable development of the national economy. References [1] WTO regulations on trade and environment: agreement on implementing sanitary and quarantine measures for animals and plants, agreement on technical barriers to trade, International Trade News, March 4, 2000. [2] GATT/WTO: Trade and Environment Shi Hai International Economic and Trade News [3] WTO Knowledge Reader Ren Quan Economic Daily Press. [4] Environment and trade, Ye Ruqiu, Cao Fengzhong, Xia, Jin Zenglin, Cheng Lulian, Yang Changju (200 1), China Environmental Science Press. [5] Compilation of International Treaties on Environment and Resources Protection, edited by the Office of the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the National People's Congress (1993), China Environmental Science. [6] Environmental Protection and Foreign Trade, Lu Suifeng (1997), China university of international business and economics Publishing House. [7] China Environmental Protection 265438+20th Century Agenda, State Environmental Protection Agency (1995), China Environmental Science Press.

Landlord, choose some for yourself.