Trade Protectionism, A New Weapon - The Green Barrier

Since the successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round Negotiation in 1994 and the foundation of the WTO in 1995, the global tariff level has been sharply reduced and the traditional non-tariff barriers have been put under severer control. On the other hand, influenced by economic factors like the international financial fluctuations, the economic growth around the world has slowed down. As the competition in export and the imbalance in global trade became severer, the protectionism in the international trade revived. In the circumstances, along with the springing up of environmental protection throughout the world, a new protectionism, known as green barrier, appeared under the color of environmental protection. Since its appearance, it has attracted the world's focus for its deep and extensive influence. As a developing country, China's technology is still under-developed and its environmental law construction is to be perfected. As a result, China has suffered a great loss in its export due to the green barrier, which uses high environmental standards as a means of import limitation. Therefore, it is necessary for us to conduct a thorough study on the green barrier, grasp the objective law of its formation and development as well as find out effective solutions. This dissertation generalizes the content of green barrier, including its definition, constituent elements, forms, features and causes, and analyses its impact on the welfare of the importing country, the exporting and the world. In addition, the essay sums up the losses that we suffered from the green barrier, analyses the reasons for these losses and comes up with a series of propositions for our government, professional associations and enterprises to deal with the green barrier.