China is being urged to develop more environmentally friendly
production in order to cope with stricter foreign environmental
standards, which is becoming a major barrier to Chinese exports,
especially with the country's imminent entry to the World Trade
Organization (WTO), experts have said.
The remark was made yesterday by economists participating in the
100th anniversary of the introduction of Adam Smith's "The Wealth
of Nations" in 1901, the starting point of economics in China.
Some 100 economists from across the country attended the meeting
held Tuesday.
Li
Boxi, a senior researcher with the Development Research Center of
the
State Council, said that after China enters the WTO, foreign
markets will probably open their doors further to cheap Chinese
products. Strict environment requirements are in place however, in
developed countries and there would be major non-tariff barriers to
impede Chinese exports.
To
make matters worse, the Chinese government and enterprises have not
staked enough importance on environment-related matters or the
rising import standards in the environment, especially in the
European Union (EU), said Li at the first China Economics Annual
Conference, hosted by Peking University's,
China Center for Economic Research.
In
recent years, governments in developed countries have made the
environment element the most important standard to evaluate product
qualities. In such conditions, more Chinese exports are refused due
to their low environment qualification.
In
China, lower environmental standards lead many manufacturers to
neglect some particular environment requirement. More than 70
percent of Chinese product standards are environmentally lower than
those of the EU.
Another threat is that growing calls for better environmental
standards among Chinese consumers will increase the competitiveness
of better environmentally equipped foreign products in the Chinese
market, Li said.
She recommended that the government should first make stricter
environment requirements for products, whether they are exports or
domestic products.
Earlier this year, the government launched an ambitious plan to
produce 5,000 new agricultural standards within the next three
years, but in other industries, the pace is still slow.
(China
Daily 10/17/2001)