Research On The CO₂ Embodied In China-Us Trade Based On The Optimization Of Trade Structure

China has become the world’s largest trading country, the increase in the volume of trade led to rapid economic growth. At the same time, the trade structure is irrational and low-tech, and export commodities are mainly concentrated in low value-added and large energy consumption industrial, which resulting in a large number of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. As the climate change has become a global issue, China is facing a huge carbon emission reduction pressure, which is not conducive to long-term sustainable development of economic society. In this regard, China should develop low carbon trade, optimize the current trade structure, and strive to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions in the case of minimal economic impact.The United States is an important trading partner of China. This paper takes the Sino US trade as the research object. Firstly, we measure the carbon embodied. Then we analyze the results of carbon embodied from the perspective of the rationality of the trade structure,and propose a possible trade structure optimization path. The results of carbon embodied show that: 1995-2009 China’s carbon embodied of exports to the United States has a greater size than carbon embodied of imports. China has always been a net exporter of carbon embodied. The net exporting carbon embodied has a high degree of concentration, but the import and export structure is clearly different. The service sector has a certain proportion in sectors which importing carbon embodied is concentrated, while manufacturing sectors occupy sectors which exporting carbon embodied is concentrated. The trade rationality results show that: 1995-2009 China’s exports to the United States are mainly concentrated in the high-carbon emission embodied industrial, which is not conducive to reducing the level of China’s trade carbon emissions, the export trade structure has not been a reasonable direction. The proportion in high-carbon emission embodied industrial perform more obviously than which in low-carbon emission embodied industrial in China’s imports from the United States. The import trade structure has started to develop in a reasonable way, and then it has deviated from this direction. The optimization results of this paper provide a possible way to optimize the trade structure. By adjusting the import and export structure ofChina and the United States in 2009, we can get a result that the net export increases by14.31%, and net exporting carbon embodied decreases by 10%, which ensure the economic benefit and environmental benefit of China.Finally, according to the analysis results, the paper puts forward some policy suggestions on the optimization of China’s trade structure: including the reasonable adjustment of the export structure, the transformation and upgrading of the processing trade,the promotion of the development of service trade and the adjustment of the import structure.