On Just Green Barriers

Currently, the green trade barriers have been the excuses for trade protectionismwhich China is suffered from. However, our knowledge and research on green tradebarriers are mostly from the perspective of international trade and macro level.Although these can help people understand the green trade barriers, these are notworkable in practice for legal practitioners because of having no practical value. Thispaper analyzes the legitimate green barriers; it is to deal with the demands of legalpractice.This paper argues that green trade barriers occurrence is unavoidable and theseexistence is also reasonable. Green barriers themselves are not equivalent to tradeprotectionism. From the point of view of governance, green barriers are nationalmeasures. From the perspective of value, green barriers are limitation of the freedomof trade. Such restrictive measures have legitimate and illegitimate points. Greenbarriers should be consistent with the basic principles of international law, whileshouldn’t infringe the rights and interests of other countries or regions. If greenbarriers are against the basic principles of international law and infringe the rights andinterests of other countries or regions, they are unfair. Unfair green barriers areformed into trade protectionism. The international community should protect fairgreen barriers but prohibit unfair green barriers.This article demonstrates the proper green barriers in progressive way. Firstly, itinvestigates the causes of green barriers’ generation and existence, and reveals that theexistence of green barriers is objective and inevitable. Secondly, it introduces themain manifestations of green barriers. Thirdly, it draws a conclusion: green barriersare national measures from the perspective of national governance; green barriers arethe limitation of the freedom to trade from the perspective of value. Then, it points outthe types of green barriers, legitimate and illegitimate. Finally, it demonstrates theproper green barriers and gives specific conditions which should be consistent with...