A Research On Issues Of Foreign Trade And Pollution In China

Since the reform and opening up, especially entering into WTO, China’ foreigngrows rapidly. The trade scale, trade structure and model all change deeply. Foreigntrade undoubtedly plays an irreplaceable role in economic growth, so does intechnological advance and in industrial structure of China. But meanwhile, theenvironment quality in China, with the development of our national economy, andespecially with the rapid expansion of the foreign trade, deteriorates rapidly. China’semission of several major pollutants takes the first place in the world now. And theforeign trade, which has great promotion on highly development of China’seconomy, takes the most public attention. So as a result lots of discussions about“trade and environmental pollution” spring up. This paper probes into the issues ofthe effects of foreign trade on China’s environment; the embody pollution in foreigntrade; the trade between China and its major trading partner and the pollution duringthe process. And then, the paper will put forward several feasibly suggestions onforeign trade and environment pollution in China. So it includes the following parts.Part one, the introduction. In this part, the paper introduces the researchbackground and significances, then reorganizes and comments large number ofliteratures about the environmental effects of foreign trade and pollutant which isrelated to it. Meanwhile, in this part the author also introduces the structurearrangement; the research method; the innovations and defectsThe content in part two is theoretical foundation of the paper. It elucidates ageneral equilibrium model of relationship between foreign trade and environmentalpollution. And then based on single-region competitive input-output method andmulti-region noncompetitive input-output method, it interprets calculating methodof embody pollution in foreign trade. The content in part three elaborates current situation of the foreign trade andthe environment pollution in China. Based on the data on descriptive statistics ofChina’s foreign trade and environmental pollution, it processes the current data onforeign trade development and worsening environment pollution, and reveals thesimilarity between changing tendencies of the two. Firstly, it summarizesfundamental state of China’s foreign trade and environmental pollution. Secondly, itsummarizes fundamental state of foreign trade and environmental pollution inChina’s east-central-west regions. In the end, it summarizes foreign trade of China’sindustrial sector as well as induced environmental pollution.The fourth part is empirical test of the effects of foreign trade andenvironmental pollution in China. It uses a general equilibrium model of foreigntrade and environmental pollution, respectively studies the different elements thatinfluence environmental effects of China’s foreign trade, such as scale effect,structure effect, technical effect, effects of trade barriers, effect of intra-industrytrade, etc. The consequences show that, in aspect of scale effect the expansion ofeconomic scale increases emissions of pollutant or contamination; in aspect ofstructure effect, the increasing ratio between capital and labor deteriorates theemissions; whereas, technological advance reduce the emissions in aspect oftechnical effect; in effects of trade barriers, the reduction of of pollution in themedium and long term; in the end, the development of intra-industry trade plays therole of reducing emissions.Using single-region competitive input-output model, the fifth part calculatesthe volume of pollutant in import and export activities of whole nation, in foreigntrade, in the industrial sectors’ import and export activities, and its influence factors.The consequences show that total pollutant in export is greater than import. That isto say the net content of pollutant in foreign trade is positive. From the point of thechange in pullutant over the years, volume of pollutant in import and export activities of whole nation has a steady decline situation. And from the distribution ofemission branches, the emissions mainly concentrate upon sectors which have largevalue of import and export, such as communications industry, textile industry,chemistry industry etc. Similar with the whole nation, the total volume of pollutantof various industrial sectors’ also have a steady decline situation. These three factors,which influence nation’s emissions of import and export in foreign trade, containforeign trade scale, foreign trade structure, and technological advances. During theauthor’s study, the China’s foreign trade scale prompts the emissions, thetechnological advances reduce the emissions, but the structure of foreign trade hasvery limited effect on environment pollution..In the sixth part, the author calculates the added value of trade between Chinaand USA, Japan, Korea. Based on the added value accounting methods, the authorfirstly uses multi-region noncompetitive input-output table calculates added value oftrade between China and USA, Japan, Korea and then calculates the volume ofpollutant caused by it, and analyzes influencing factors in the end. The results showthat there are disparities between China and USA to varying degrees, China andJapan, China and Korea. For example, the total pollutant related to added value ofexport trade between China and the three nations is far more than import. And thedisparities of emissions related to added value of import and export embodies thedisparities between import and export on the one hand, also embodies the disparitiesof clean production technology between China and developed countries. In factorswhich influence pollutants related to China’s added value of import and export, thetechnological advances (total emission factors) limits the emissions, and foreigntrade scale prompts the emissions, and the structure of foreign trade has anunobvious effect on the emissions.The seventh part contains conclusion and policy enlightenments. Based on thebasic viewpoints and the conclusion, the author puts forward suggestions on controlling and reducing huge negative impacts on our environment resulted fromforeign trade.