Effect Of Different Exporting Trade Patterns On The Environment

The problem about trade and environment had been proposed as earlyas1972during the period of preparing for United Nations Conference onHuman Environment. Later, with the "sustainable development" conceptbeing widely accepted and the development of economic globalization, therelations between trade and environment are becoming hot issues for manyscholars.Since the policy of reformation and opening was carried out, economicglobalization and export-oriented strategy had been carried out, in thepursuit of economic development and enhancing import and export,environment issues have been ignored. China is becoming the world’smanufacturing base, at the same time environmental problems are growing.We must consider the environmental costs achieving the change from"quantitative growth" to "quality-oriented growth" when foreign tradegrows rapidly and promotes economic development. Domestic and foreignscholars have done a lot research on the topic of trade and environment.Some scholars proposed hypothesis on the environmental impact of trade,some scholars have done some empirical research on the environmentalimpact of trade growth, but it is rarely for the research by the view oftrade patterns.In this paper, based on combing the literature, foreign trade dataof Shandong, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces is selected. Trade patternsof different provinces are summed up by comparative analysis. By the viewof different export trade patterns, the environmental costs of tradegrowth will be analyzed with empirical method. At the same time,countermeasures and suggestions will be put forward.Introduction is the first part of this paper. In this part, the background, the purpose of this topic, the meaning of the research andthe methods will be explained. To analyze the issues of trade andenvironment, this chapter can be separated into five aspects: theincreasing influence of international trade on the Chinese economy; ourenergy, resources and environmental problems are worsening; green tradeand sustainable development have been focused; China has become theworld’s manufacturing base at the same time Environmental problems havebecome more and more serious; the research by the view of different exporttrade patterns is still rare. Based on all the aspects, the paper aimsto find the different influences to the environment by different tradepatterns, examine the relationship between trade patterns andenvironmental costs and explore the mode of sustainable development inorder to guide practice.The second part of this paper is to discuss the impact of trade onthe environment. The positive effects of trade on the environment,negative impacts and the major theoretical hypotheses about impact oftrade on environment are summarized in this part. Previous researchesabout the relationship between trade and environment are reviewed in thischapter which lay the foundation for analysis in this paper.The third part is the division of trade patterns. The division of tradepatterns is from international trade theory and practice. From theperspective of international trade theory, trade patterns can be dividedinto inter-industry trade patterns and intra-industry trade patterns.Classical trade theory has a strong persuasion in explaininginter-industry trade and the contemporary international trade theoryexplain the causes of intra-industry trade from different perspectives.Many scholars have argued that in practice of trade, commodity structure,trade modes (general trade or processing trade) and the type of foreigntrade enterprises should be taken into account. In this part the data andindicators in trade of Shandong, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces arecompared and trade patterns are explained from the structure of exportcommodities, export trade mode and the type of export enterprises.The fourth part is the empirical analysis about environmental impactby different export trade patterns. In this chapter, industrial waste water and industrial emissions are selected as indicators ofenvironmental pollution. During the process of empirical analysis, paneldata of Shandong, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces from the year2000to2009is used. Industrial waste water and industrial emissions are thedependent variables, total exports index and three indicators of theexport trade patterns are the explanatory variables. The empiricalresults on the analysis can be explained as follows: the share ofprocessing trade has negative correlation with the index of industrialwaste water and industrial emissions. The share of foreign enterpriseshas positive correlation with the index of industrial waste water andindustrial emissions. The phenomenon of “shift environmental costs”exists in our country to some extent.Conclusions and measurements are put forwarded in the fifth part. Themode of "high-level product structure, high proportion of processingtrade and low proportion of foreign-funded enterprises" is an idealpattern of export trade. To optimize the structure of export trade, itis necessary for the government to strengthen the environmentalregulation, internalize the environmental costs by environmental taxesand other methods, establish the coordination mechanisms on trade andenvironment and improve the environmental laws and regulations. Optimizethe industrial structure, upgrade the processing trade structure andenhance the development of environment-friendly industries. And for theenterprises it is necessary to establish green system by the standard ofISO14000.