Research On The Impact Of Export Trade On Air Pollution

Since joining the WTO,China's foreign trade,especially export trade,is developing rapidly.The scale and scope of export are expanding continuously.And in 2009,China jumped successfully to become the world's largest exporter.Along with the rapid development of China's export trade,its environmental problems are becoming more and more prominent,especially air pollution.China's nitrogen oxides,sulfur dioxide and dust(smoke)emissions are in the forefront of the world,posing a great threat to human health.Haze problems break out frequently and become the focus of public.Therefore,what's the relationship between export trade and air pollution?What are the different effects of different kinds of industrial exports on air pollution?These issues are the focuses of our study.This paper first reviews the literature on the environmental effects of trade,summarizes the basic framework and models,and explores the relevant empirical research results.Secondly,this paper analyzes the status quo of export trade from four aspects:export scale,export structure,export regional characteristics and export trade patterns,and the two kinds of air pollutants PM2.5 and SO2 are described and analyzed.Then,based on Copeland&Taylor's(2003)general equilibrium model of trade environmental effects,the influence mechanism of air pollution is explained.Finally,this paper uses the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2011,from the two aspects of trade openness and trade structure,examines the impact of export trade on the air pollution reflected by average concentration of PM2.5 and SO2 emissions.Empirical analysis reaches the following main conclusions:the effect of export openness on the average concentration of PM2.5 is not significant,but it has a significant positive effect on SO2 emission,that means the effect of export trade on different air pollutants may be inconsistent.From the export structure aspect,the increase in the proportion of heavy industry export brought about the intensifying of PM2.5 and SO2 pollutants,while high-tech industry export has a mitigation effect on the two pollutants.This means that,in addition to export openness,export structure is also an important fact or affecting air quality.Continuously optimizing of export structure will improve China's air quality.According to the results of the study,this paper puts forward the following measures:Change the mode of trade growth,optimize the export structure and force the optimization of domestic industrial structure;Strengthen environmental regulation,improve environmental laws and regulations;Attract foreign direct investment and promote technology spillovers.