| Like all the previous protectionisms in the history, Green Trade Protectionism (GTP) has been created to serve the interest of the ruling governments. With WTO formed and world trade being liberalized, traditional tariff and non-tariff barriers (after tariffication) are required to be gradually removed within a specific period. This leads to the innovation of new types of trade barriers, among which Green Trade Barrier (GTB) is the most outstanding with a legal and sound excuse by protecting the human health and ecological environment. Green Trade Barriers refer to those non-tariff barriers that are used to reduce, prohibit or resist imports to protect domestic industries and domestic producers through a series of harsh standards and legal approaches based on the excuse above. They could be applied by the government or social organizations (such as associations) or even by consumer's resistance. Mostly, these barriers have a scientific base, thus are usually classified as Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs), which implies the technological competition among nations. With the technological advantages, developed countries are extremely creative and innovative in inventing and applying such barriers from end products in early years to the whole Production and Processing Methods (PPMs) at present. This has been unfavorably causing the developing nations to lose some of their traditional markets.It seems to be true that the prevailing and ramification of GTP has seriously affected the international trade pattern and attracted much attention at home and abroad. But literature shows that, up to date, GTP hasn't been formally and systematically investigated as a trade protection theory. Naturally, this becomes one of the major objectives of this dissertation. Theoretical analyses have given us some interesting information: First, different levels of standard have different impacts on the economic efficiency: the stricter the standards, the less the efficiency; the more advanced technology a nation (or a group) owns, the less impacts on it. Thus, changes in the levels of standard will generate the benefit redistribution between the nations or groups with different levels of technology. That is why developed countries are so interested in enhancing standards unceasingly. Second, the intemalization of environmental costs, which requires the employment of new technology, may certainly increase the cost of end products as reported, but it might have quite different effects on differently value-added products, changing the cost structure of the products, the comparative conditions of factor endowments and comparative advantages. This is also unfavorable for developing nations with most low-value-added products. Third, bad news, usually released by developed countries, may cause the import demand curve shift leftward by inducing the consumer preference toward domestic goods from imports. A typical example is that, some importable goods that were healthy according to theyesterday's standards of the importing nation become harmful according to their today's standards. Seriously and even horribly influenced by such unfavorable news, domestic consumers will surely give up or at least reduce the consumption of these goods. In this case, it is hard to judge whether the consumer surplus has gained or lost because different people have different feelings: the rich may be concerned of their own health and could be satisfied by resisting these imports at the low price, while the poor may feel disappointed of consuming domestic goods at higher price. The net welfare for the importing country depends on the balance of producer's gain and the net consumer's loss. The above three aspects indicate that the GTBs could be effectively used for the economic motives despite the alleged health and environmental considerations. Finally, the extension of GTP may also cater to the needs of politicians. Producers' benefits have to be taken into consideration under the current political mechanisms in developed countries when the GTBs a...
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