The Environmental Impact Of Environmental Provisions In RTAs On Contracting Parties

In recent years,along with the acceleration of world economic integration,international trade and environmental pollution received more and more attention.Entering the new century,in the practice of international trade terms,provisions related to environmental protection is added in a large number of bilateral or multilateral agreements.However,current literature concerning environmental provisions is not plentiful,and fails to sort out a clear influencing mechanism and the policy effects of environmental provisions.Because of this aspect of the research results will help countries weigh the multilateral trade agreements and environment-related advantages and disadvantages,and will help countries to explore ways to coordinate development of foreign trade and environmental protection,the paper focuses on environmental effects of environmental provisions,using a global atmosphere fine particulate matter(PM2.5)expansion to carry out specialized data analysis.This paper reviews the research on trade liberalization and environmental quality of their predecessors,and focus on the content of "balance clause" and the "escape clause"categories of environmental provisions.In summing up the contents of the existing literature and on the basis of the articles in environmental provisions,this paper put environmental provisions into current analytical framework of the trade and the environmente to discuss its mechanism.This paper argues that,on the one hand,the^harness effect5,of environmental provisions can reduce the race-to-bottom effect of trade liberalization;on the other hand,"catch-up effect" of environmental provisions can lead to a convergence between the parties in terms of pollution intensity.Then,this paper sample countries signed environmental provisions to describe the situation,and take efforts to analyze part of data in descriptive analysis which might lead to misunderstanding or dispute.In addition,PM2.5 worldwide distribution within the observation area in 2001 and 2010 are described and contrast,and this paper sample countries into two categories,developed and developing countries,describing its the changes of PM2.5 concentration in the observation period.According to the results in above descriptive analysis,this paper continues a cross-analysis of environmental terms and PM2.5 concentration,finding that environmental provisions seem to help reduce PM2.5 concentrations.Because the descriptive analysis does not consider the defect of other variables and to overcome such short coinings,this paper further carry on the empirical analysis.Based on panel data of 136 countries ranging from 2001 to 2010,this paper use the per capita GDP,trade openness,per capita land area,forest coverage,the average annual rainfall,urbanization,thousands of vehicle fleet seven variables to control the impact of natural factors and human activities on PM2.5 concentrations.Propensity score matching is used to alleviate endogeneity' problems.The main results indicate that "harness effect" of environmental provisions can reduce race-to-bottom effect which is positive to the environment.Besides,"catch-up effect" of environmental provisions can promote late-developing advantage of developing couJtries which is positive to the convergence of PM2.5 concentration of developed parties.Based on the findings above,this paper provides a simple policy recommendations.When signing the environmental provisions,it is recommended to strengthen its effectiveness,change the nature of its "soft law".What's more,China should adhere to the position and status of the developing countries,strive for more technical assistance and human capital training,handling the relationship of import and export trade,investment promotion and environmental protection.