Introduction
As the world economy moves towards globalization, China has become more open to trade with other countries. Its international trade volume had risen from US$20.6 in 1978 to US$1,422 billion in 2005 (Wang & Liu, 2007). Since China’s exports mainly focus on the labor intensive and resource intensive industries, this exports pattern causes a serious environmental problem in China. Green barriers become a kind of emerging non-tariff barrier which is used for the developed countries to protect their production and economic development in recent years. The main forms of green barriers include green tariff and market access, green packaging and labeling requirements, green technology standards, Green health inspection system,
What’s more, Green barriers can directly restrict some trade activities which have negative effects on natural resources, the environment, and human beings. As a result, countries have to transform their traditional production and development models. This means that green barriers would force companies to adopt a circular ecological production process and finally achieve sustainable development (Wang & Liu, 2007).
As a developing country, China may face some strict and unfair restrictions from some developed countries due to the rapid development, but its poor environmental awareness and production models are also the main reasons that China faces green barriers. No matter what kind of reasons is, the most important lesson for China to learn is treat green barrier as its motion of achieving sustainable development in today’s business world. In fact, due to the increased openness to trade and foreign investment, China’s environmental quality has improved through the superior regulatory standards and environmental technology. Also, Chinese firms have become more self-regulate because of the pressure for enhanced environmental regulation and product standards from principal developed-world importers of Chinese goods (Zeng & Eastin, 2007).
China’s tea exports
In April 2007, European Union increased farm chemical residue test items on imported teas to 227. This move followed Japan’s enforcement in May 2006 of the positive List System of