Proposals For The Coordination Between Trade Development And Environmental Protection After China's WTO Accession

The communication of the global economy is becoming increasingly close together because of the intense economic globalization. China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 signifies that China has been further integrated into the process of economic globalization, and marks China's program of opening to the outside world in a way that enters a new stage. Wider market opening and changes in the structure and volume of trade after the WTO accession are expected to significantly alter China's economy. As the emergence of green consumerism and "Green barriers" in the international market, the environmental impacts of China's WTO accession have also been far-reaching. How to coordinate economic development, trade liberalization and environmental protection is the biggest challenge facing China on its path to sustainable development.China began to pay sufficient attention to environmental problems in the 1970s. Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, it has signed or ratified many international treaties dealing with environmental issues. China's past two decades of rapid economic growth and industrialization have been accompanied by steady deterioration of the environment. Already the country is one of the most polluted places in the world, as well as the second largest producer of greenhouse gases after the United States. How to strike a proper balance between environmental protection and fast economic growth will have an important impact on China's modernization outcome and its international standing.A clear picture of the environmental impacts and challenges of China's WTO membership will not only help identify the necessary solutions needed to address environment-related trade challenges, but also define China's role in the multilateral trading system. This paper aims to put forward some author's recommendations for the coordinative development of trade and environment in China's post-WTO accession era.The paper comprises five parts. The first part introduces the background of the coordinative development between trade and environment in China. The second part presents the trade and environment issues in the WTO, outlines the environmental provisions in the WTO agreements and examines the relationship between trade development and environmental protection. The third part analyzes the environment-related trade impacts of China as a WTO member, such as the impact of green consumerism, transparency requirement of environmental laws and standards, environmental challenges of increased foreign investment inflows, and the impact of increased imports of resource-based products. The fourth part puts forwards some recommendations for the. coordinative development between trade and environment in China in light of WTO rules, which includes the establishment of a sustainable development strategy for foreign trade, the improvement of environmental regulations and environmental certification programs, the enhancement of competitive ability of Chinese exports enterprises, the establishment of a new development strategy of utilizing FDI, the utilization of WTO environmental measures and rules, and the international cooperation in the field of environment. The consequent part is a conclusion of the whole paper.