| Taking advantage of their low emission of carbon the USA and some developedcountries in Europe now in the name of protecting the world environments suggest that theenergy-intensive and carbon-intensive products be levied carbon tariff, which is actuallyregarded as a new form of green trade barriers. Though opposed strongly by manydeveloping countries, carbon tariff will inevitably become one of the critical means forthe developed countries to protect their domestic industries and restrain the developingcountries like China in the global financial crisis. Ranking as the global top exporter oftextile and apparel, China features in energy-intensive and carbon-intensive products whileits exports of textile and apparel move mainly to the developed countries as Europe, theUSA and Japan. It is obvious that carbon tariff will exert significant influence onsustainable development of China’s Textile and Apparel industry.Research shows that carbon tariff will exert restrictive effects on the export,transferring effect on trade, deteriorating effect on terms of trade and innovation effectthrough cost control mechanism, demand control mechanism, innovative mechanism. Thetextile and Apparel industry in China is typical of high-energy consumption, high-carbonemission and low-value added, which is also located in the low end of the global valuechain. The cost in export of textile and apparel products will screw up as the carbon tariff islevied when low-carbon technology, carbon labeling, carbon certification as well as othermeasures of reducing carbon emission are required. Consequently the competitiveadvantages in the cost will be weakened. Under the pressure of diffusion effect of carbontariff barrier, the competitiveness of textile and apparel products in China will be largelycrippled. In the short run the small and medium-sized enterprises in textile and apparelindustries are running the risk of shutting down. But in the long run, if these enterprises canrespond fast and properly by conducting innovation, implementing low-carbon technology,upgrading industrial structure to change the growth pattern with the help of foreigninvestment, the textile and apparel industries will attain sustainable development andimprove the competitiveness in low carbon emission of exports.The results of the co-integration regression on the export competitiveness of China’stextile and apparel products being levied the carbon tariff show an obvious negativecorrelation between the competitiveness in the textile and apparel products and CO2emission intensity. In fact, the higher the intensity in the carbon tariff, the greater drop inthe export. Moreover, there are positive correlations between exports and labor inputs, yetthe increasing rise in the labor cost will affect the competitiveness greatly. There are also stronger positive correlations between exports and net fixed assets indicating that the textileindustry in China is transforming from labor-intensive to capital-intensive kind. What’smore, there are no significant correlations between exports and R&D expenditureindicating that the exports from China are low and middle-end product with low-tech, lowvalue added and low technology contribution.What are the major factors influencing the competitiveness in the exports of textileand apparel products from China after being levied carbon tariff? What are still theadvantages and disadvantages in the textile and apparel industry in China?Firstly of all, the definition of the concept of low carbon competitiveness in thetextile and apparel exports from China is needed. Secondly, it is necessary to select themain influencing factors working on the competitiveness of textile and apparel exportsfrom China. Based on the large amount of data, from the endogenous perspectives of costfactor, low-carbon innovation factor and the government’s low-carbon policy factor, thethesis probes into how these factors influence the competitiveness of textile and apparelexports from China.The results of the empirical analysis are as follows:Compared with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam and some other developing countries,China is losing its cost advantage in textile industry along with the increasing costs in laborand raw material. In addition, with a complete and well developed industrial chain as wellas a wide range of industrial clusters, together with an expanding domestic market, China isstill bearing cost advantage in the textile and apparel industries compared with thedeveloped countries such as the US and some European countries.If taking low-carbon and innovation into consideration, the developed countries enjoyabsolute advantages in the textile industry as they benefit from their talents and researchaccomplishment in low-carbon technologies and consequently dominate the low-carbonand high value added positions in the global value chains. The US, Germany and Japan areleading the low-carbon technologies in the textile industry while France, Italy and otherdeveloped countries are enjoying high profits from the updated designs and popular brands.Inevitably the competitiveness in the developed countries will screw up after the carbontariff is levied. However, compared with other developing countries, China bears itsadvantage firmly.China lags behind the developed countries yet runs ahead of other developingcountries in establishing and implementing low-carbon economic policies. It can be saidthat the competitiveness in the low-carbon textile and apparel export in the future fromChina depends extensively on whether China’s government can exert sound and applicablepolicies and measures.In order to raise the competitiveness of the low-carbon exports in the textile andapparel industries from China, corresponding strategies are proposed upon four orientationsunder the pressure of carbon tariff. Firstly, China should establish an image of high responsibility and stick to theprinciple of common but differentiated responsibilities in the world. Furthermore, Chinashould set up the anti-carbon Customs Union with the other developing countries andparticipate in building the rules actively. In the meanwhile, China should also cooperatewell with the developed countries in low-carbon technologies for China to gain time andspace to develop its textile industry in the low-carbon era.Secondly, China should execute technological innovations as breakthrough to occupythe commanding heights of the low-carbon in the world competition guaranteed by high-quality of personnel training and development. China should also build its own brands andpromote them internationally. What’s more, China should proactively construct industrialclusters of low-carbon. Strategies to evade carbon tariffs in export and foreign investmentare also expected.Thirdly, China’s enterprises should be carbon footprint oriented by sticking to thelow-carbon idea in managing the whole supply chain from the R&D to the recycling link aswell as handling the entire value chain.Finally, China’s central government should conduct domestic policies in encouraginglow-carbon energy industries and advocate ways of low-carbon production andconsumption. By establishing a sound legal and policy system with incentives andconstraints, a bright future of China’s textile and apparel industry of low-carbon emissionwill be seen. |
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