Green Barriers In Agricultural Trade Research

With the running of WTO, tariff barriers are cut down continuously and traditional non-tariff barriers are limited more and more rigidly. New type non-tariff barriers get to used widely. Green barrier has been the most prevalent type at present. WTO acknowledges the justification and necessity of green trade measures and permits the countries to adopt those measures rationally. At present, green barrier has become the biggest obstacle to our country's export of produce and lay serious stress and challenge on that. It is imperative that we deeply study the problems of green barrier that are appearing in the process of trade of our county's farm produce.This paper consists of five parts:The first part is about the elementary situation of green barrier. Firstly the concept of green barrier is introduced. Then the background of green barrier is analyzes. The form is various, which mainly includes green tariff system, green technology system green packing system and so on. The paper analyzes the characteristic of green barrier on this base.The second part analyzes the rules in WTO about green barrier, and gives briefly assessment on the environment issue in WTO. Members of WTO are allowed to take some green measures following the rules of indiscrimination and transparency. But there are still a few of defects in environment issue, such as the ambiguity of environment clause, lack of a systematic standard, less considerations of the trade needs of developing countries.The third part introduces the green barrier of some mainly developed countries and analyzes their common features and defects. The legal system of green barrier in developed countries is perfect. And the technical criterions are more and more rigorous. The scope of produces which green barrier concern is more and more larger. But principles and regulations of WTO are often violated in drafting and adopting some green barrier in developed countries. And also by using some dim stipulations, the developed countries create great obstacle to developing countries.The forth part analyzes the positive and negative effect which is brought bygreen barrier. On one hand, green barrier brings bad effect to China's export trade, such as reducing the spend of export, shrinking the export market, lowering the economic benefit of export enterprises. And on the other hand, we can also use green barrier to protect our county's environment and health of human being and animal and vegetable life generally.The last part inquires into the present conditions of green barrier in our country and also gives some suggestions. It analyzes the major causes of our failure, such as lack of knowledge of the function and affection of green barrier, serious defects in the legislation of the quality of produce, etc. To develop the trade of produce continuously and soundly we must learn to utilize the green clause of WTO, and draw the experiences of developed countries. So we should discard the unreasonable green barrier by using the relevant clauses of WTO and take part in the activities about the international environment and trade and strengthen the international cooperation in legislation.