A Study On The Environmental Effects Of China’s Trade Liberalization In Environmental Goods

The trade liberalization in environmental goods is an important way to achieve sustainable development through win-win-win cooperation among trade,economic development and environmental protection.In recent years,China has been actively transforming from an economic development model of high energy consumption and high pollution to a green economy and circular economy,paying more and more attention to environmental issues.Different from most of the developing countries that only rely on imported environmental goods,China has ranked first in both import and export in environmental goods in the world in the past five years,and the environmental effects of trade liberalization in environmental goods on China are worth studying.This thesis first reviews the domestic and international literature on trade liberalization in environmental goods.Secondly,it defines environmental goods,and analyzes the characteristics of China’s environmental goods trade from the perspective of trade scale,trade structure and trade market based on the APEC2012 list of environmental goods.Then,by revising from Nimubona’s theory model of "developing countries only rely on imports for environmental goods" assumption to "China not only produces environmental goods,but also imports and exports environmental goods" new assume,it creates a mathematical model that can more reflect the characteristics of China’s environmental goods trade.The path and direction of environmental effects of trade liberalization in environmental goods in China have been theoretically discussed.Finally,using panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2001 to 2016,this thesis establishes an empirical model for the first time to study the direction of environmental effects of China’s trade liberalization in environmental goods.The study shows that: in the aspect of theory,environmental effects of China’s trade liberalization in environmental goods are implemented through two paths,one is that the trade liberalization in environmental goods directly stimulates the increase of demand for environmental goods and brings about positive environmental effects,the other is that the trade liberalization in environmental goods will lead to the relaxation of environmental pollution regulation by the government,which will indirectly reduce the demand for environmental goods and increase the output of polluting products,both of which will lead to the increase of pollution emissions and negative environmental effects;from the empirical results,the direction of the environmental effects brought by the trade liberalization in environmental goods in China is negative,and the government’s relaxation of environmental pollution control is its key reason.