贸易协定环境条款深度抑制了出口产品质量吗?——来自中国贸易伙伴国的证据

Does the depth of environmental provisions in trade agreements inhibit the quality of export products?Evidence from China's trading partners

将环境条款纳入贸易协定有益于全球环境治理,但可能会影响出口产品质量。在构建理论模型阐述环境条款深度影响出口产品质量的基础上,基于2000-2017年中国签署生效的12个贸易协定和出口到22个协定伙伴国产品层面的数据,实证考察了环境条款深度对出口产品质量的影响及其机制。研究发现:环境条款深度对出口产品质量有显著抑制作用,且抑制作用随时间推移逐渐减弱;协定伙伴国环境规制水平越高,该抑制作用越强。异质性分析表明:环境条款深度对污染密集型产品质量的抑制作用最强,且随时间推移减幅最大;环境条款深度对环境产品质量的抑制作用最弱,且随时间推移逐渐减弱,并在贸易协定生效3年后减弱至不再显著;抑制作用随平均产品质量提升呈倒“U”型变化趋势。环境条款深度通过增加环境合规成本和提高平均生产率影响出口产品质量,且成本效应大于技术效应。研究结论对中国参与国际绿色规则制定和提升出口产品质量具有重要意义。

The inclusion of environmental provisions in trade agreements is beneficial to global environmental governance but may affect the export quality.This study constructs a theoretical model to explain the impact of the depth of environmental provisions on the quality of export products and then empirically examines this impact and its underlying mechanisms based on the data from 12 trade agreements signed by China from 2000 to 2017 and the products exported to 22 agreement partners.The study finds that the depth of environmental clauses has a significant inhibitory effect on the quality of export products,and this effect gradually weakens over time.The higher the level of environmental regulation in partner countries,the stronger the inhibitory effect.The heterogeneity analysis shows that the depth of environmental clauses has the strongest inhibitory effect on the quality of pollution-intensive products and the greatest decrease over time;the inhibitory effect of the depth of environmental clauses on the quality of environmental products is the weakest,and it gradually diminishes over time and becomes insignificant three years after the trade agreement takes effect.The inhibition effect shows an inverted U-shaped trend with improvements in average product quality.The depth of environmental provisions affects the quality of China's export products by increasing the costs of environmental compliance and improving average productivity,with the cost effect outweighing the technological effect.The findings are of great significance for China's participation in the formulation of international green rules and the improvement in export quality.