| Recent years, with the rapid development of trade liberalization all over the world, various tariff and non-tariff measures used as trade barriers have been restricted or totally forbidden by WTO. Meanwhile a new kind of non-tariff trade barrier, namely green trade barrier, has been increasingly employed in international trade practice by many developed countries. As a newly-developed trade protecting instrument, green trade barrier adopts different trade-restricting measures for the sake of environmental protection and brings distortion and restriction to free trade, thus making the developing countries such as China confronted with more passivity and disadvantage. Therefore it is necessary to pay more attention to the theoretical study of green trade barrier so as to eliminate its negative impacts, settle trade disputes and ultimately realize the harmonious development between global trade liberalization and environmental protection. Firstly, this article generalizes the causing factors, the characteristics and the external forms of green trade barrier. Secondly, the international legal sources on which green trade barrier bases are demonstrated, mainly including the green clauses of GATT/WTO, the trade-related articles in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) as well as trade-related articles in regional trade agreements. Thirdly, by discussing its influences on WTO legal system, its challenge to state sovereignty and its impacts on international treaty law, the article analyzes the impacts of green trade barrier on international legal system and discusses the resolving methods from international aspect, holding that it is essential to perfect the green clauses of GATT/WTO and harmonize the conflicts of the substantial regulations between MEAs and GATT/WTO. Finally, according to the actual situation in China, the article puts forward legal countermeasures to deal with the issue of green trade barrier, proposing that China, on the one hand,should actively participate in the international law-making activities on related issues and solve the international trade disputes caused by green trade barrier by using dispute settlement mechanism of WTO, on the other hand, should further perfect domestic legislation on trade and environment, establishing a legal system of environmental protection with Chinese characteristic, reforming and perfecting Chinese environmental administrative and judicatory system, improving the level of law-executing as well as constructing green trade barrier in China.
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