Is environmental regulation a trade barrier? The evidence from developing countries

摘要

Since 1960s, the importance of environmental protection has come into world's vision. The application of environmental regulation in international trade has got more and more along of the deepening of globalization. The prevailing view suggests that when some country carry out more stringent environmental regulation, the export from other country getting harder. Is this true even the two countries in trade are developing countries? In this paper, we will use the panel data of China's exports to ASEAN to study the export trade effect of environmental regulation. Environmental regulation has become to be the most common kind of trade policy. Therefore, there must be some realistic significance by focusing on the effect of ASEAN's environmental regulation on China's export. The conclusion includes: 1. Not every environmental regulation could affect trade; 2. Export to some country who implements more stringent environmental regulation may increase, not decline at least. That means, not all environmental regulation will become trade barriers. 3. Explain the mechanism of how this happened.