The Impact Of Carbon Tariff On Hi-tech Industry Export In China And Countermeasures

With the development of global economy and the deepening of industrialization, the environmental problems such as global warming caused by excessive carbon dioxide emissions has become more serious. In order to suppress the deterioration of earth, the world had issued a series of emission reduction policies. Such as by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol, all countries have responsibility for reducing greenhouse gases. According to the common but differentiated responsibilities, developing countries do not have mandatory requirements. However, in order to avoid related industry impact, maintain the competitiveness of corresponding products, Europe and the United States and some other developed countries adopted measures to escape their responsibility, work out environmental standards which are difficult to achieve for developing countries. This is the generation of green trade barriers, while the carbon tariff is a new kind of it.In2007, the former French President Chirac first proposed carbon tariff, in hope to impose carbon tariffs to those countries that were fail to comply with the Kyoto Protocol and protected the EU countries from unfair competitions after the operation of carbon emissions trading mechanism. In2009, the United States issued the American Clean Energy and Security Act which set rules on imposing carbon tariff on goods imported from developing countries including China. In2012the EU imposed carbon tariff on all flight entered. The carbon tariff is Pigou Taxes Theory, Coase Theorem and the internalization of environmental cost. The relevant provisions in article twentieth (b) and (g) of GATT also became legal basis. But essentially, carbon tariff is not only a kind of green trade barriers, but also a new round game between the developed countries and the developing countries. The low carbon economy and the green technology has become the main way for Europe and America to get out of the troubled economy, also the future economic and currency hegemony between them.Once the carbon tariff is imposed, the entire industry in china would have a big influence. This paper chooses high-tech industry to study because it is a new industry in China and its export proportion is increasing heavily. The high-tech industry is not only the main direction of upgrading of export structure, but also the export example of extended marginal growth. So this paper is exploring effective path between export growth and green economic, and provide suggestions for the upgrading of China’s export structure. This paper analyses the development of high-tech industry in China, including the import and export situation, technology distribution, major trading partners, trade distribution and type of enterprise. Also analysis the international division status of China’s high-tech industry by the RCA index, which found out that China’s high-tech industry position in the international division of labor is still low, and there exists problems such as single export products, too concentrated export market, mainly processing trade, excessive dependence on foreign capital. The existence of these problems will make high-tech export enterprises more vulnerable to international market fluctuations.In general, carbon tariff will have a dual impact on China’s high-tech industry and the overall economy. First of all, carbon tariffs will make trade protectionism breeds, disrupt the international order, and lead to trade friction. The carbon tariff and other green trade barriers have leveled the standards for our high-tech products to enter the European and American market, while Europe and the United States is the main trade partner of us, so the export market will be hindered. For the high-tech enterprises, the implementation of carbon tariff will increase the cost of production, processing, storage, transportation, sale, use and disposal, weaken the international competitiveness of China’s high-tech products, which restricts the development of domestic enterprises. However, from another perspective, carbon tariff can force the high-tech industry updating and continuous innovation objectively. But the negative impact is far greater than the positive effect, and the transformation of trade product structure is a long and difficult process. So the low carbon transition for China is both opportunities and challenges. We must respond to carbon tariffs actively, reduce the negative influence and loss in high-tech product trade.Finally, this paper put forward suggestions from the trade strategy, industry policy, enterprise development strategy, in order to help the sustainable development of high-tech industry export in China under the carbon tariff.This paper has sort of innovation in the subject, because the study of previous scholars for carbon tariff were mostly analyzed from the angle of carbon tariffs between economic growth. The direct effect of carbon tariffs on some specific industry were mainly focused on the high carbon industries such as cement, coal processing etc. This paper chose the high-tech industry as the research object, studied the export of it under the carbon tariff constraints.