Environmental Tax And Its International Coordination

Faced with the threat of the global environmental deterioration and the basic need of the sustainable development,environmental tax has been proved theoretically and practically an effective economic means.Environmental tax is based on the theory of externality and that of public goods and means that the government forces a firm to achieve the internalization of its externality by means of tax. Meanwhile the environmental tax is also attractive to the government because it can provide revenue that is not available through executive restrictions.However,a country itself cannot solve many environmental problems. It also works to categorize the international environmental problems with the theory of externality. If one country bears the environmental costs for another county or vice versa,the multi-national externality will take place. Thus,one country will have an effect on the welfare of another country. There are two cases for this kind of multi-national externality:unilateral externality and common externality.Either of the two kinds of externality is concerned with multi-national environmental problem. One characteristics of the multi-national environmental problem is that the environmental degradation of any country will have an effect on the welfare of another country. This cross-boundary environmental effect demands multi-lateral solutions,that is,the need of designing an effective incentive to promote the cooperation between countries. It is obvious that the international environmental policies and incentives are needed to solve the international environmental problems.One of the most important influences of environmental tax is its influence on the international competitiveness. When we impose the environmental tax,we should concern about not only its influence on the international competitiveness,but also its effectiveness. In the case of multi-national externality,we must base our concern about the effectiveness of the environmental tax on "leaking". "Leaking" refers to the increase in the volume of the waste emission in the area without environmental tax:Thus,the effectiveness of the environmental tax in one country is offset by the increase in the production and consumption of other countries. As regards the global influence of the multi-national environmental problems and the environmental tax,the most important thing for the international environmental tax coordination and cooperation is to determine its basic objectives. Based on the current situation of the socio-economic conditions of all countries in the world and the international environmental problems,the objectives should be as follows:First,to allocate effectively the resources in the whole world and to coordinate the development of the global environment and economy so that the sustainable development can be achieved in the global scope.Second,to guarantee the effective implementation of the environmental tax in the whole world,to solve such problems as the double taxations and double exemptions,to resolve the conflicts of tax equity among countries and properly determine the incidence of the environmental tax so that the Polluter Pays Principle can be followed.In the cooperation of international environmental protection,the sovereignty of all countries should be fully respected. When the environmental tax is implemented,we should properly deal with the relationship between the developed countries and the developing countries. We should fully consider the special need of the developing countries on the one hand,and follow the principle of "common but differentiated duties" on the other hand. Some exceptional and preferential provisions of tax in the interest of the developing countries should be kept in the respect of international coordination of the environmental tax'.The degree of the influence on environment owing to the different regional features determines the different ways and measures to bring the environment in order. The multi-national environmental coordination can mainly include the global coordinat...