Open Access Journal Article

Are greener RTAs reducing “dirty” exports?

by Li Cao a orcid Dahai Fu a,* orcid  and  Ying Zhang b
a
School of International Trade and Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China
b
Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 18 March 2023 / Accepted: 8 July 2023 / Published Online: 17 July 2023

Abstract

We examine the impact of environmental provisions in regional trade agreements (RTAs) on the environmentally harmful exports. Results show that environmental clauses in RTAs help reduce “dirty” exports, whereas RTA depth promotes exports. The exporting country may divert its polluting exports to its trading partner if it faces more environmental provisions with other countries.


Copyright: © 2023 by Cao, Fu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Share and Cite

ACS Style
Cao, L.; Fu, D.; Zhang, Y. Are greener RTAs reducing “dirty” exports?. Economic Analysis Letters, 2023, 2, 36. https://doi.org/10.58567/eal02040002
AMA Style
Cao L, Fu D, Zhang Y. Are greener RTAs reducing “dirty” exports?. Economic Analysis Letters; 2023, 2(4):36. https://doi.org/10.58567/eal02040002
Chicago/Turabian Style
Cao, Li; Fu, Dahai; Zhang, Ying 2023. "Are greener RTAs reducing “dirty” exports?" Economic Analysis Letters 2, no.4:36. https://doi.org/10.58567/eal02040002
APA style
Cao, L., Fu, D., & Zhang, Y. (2023). Are greener RTAs reducing “dirty” exports?. Economic Analysis Letters, 2(4), 36. https://doi.org/10.58567/eal02040002

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

References

  1. Baghdadi, L., Martinez-Zarzoso, I., Zitouna, H., 2013. Are RTA Agreements with environmental provisions reducing emissions? Journal of International Economics. 90, 378–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2013.04.001
  2. Baier, S. L., Bergstrand, J. H., 2007. Do free trade agreements actually increase members’ international trade? Journal of International Economics. 71 (1), 72–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2006.02.005
  3. Bastiaens, I., Postnikov, E., 2017. Greening up: The effects of environmental standards in EU and US trade agreements. Environmental Politics. 26, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2017.1338213
  4. Berger, A., Brandi, C., Morin, J.-F., Schwab, J., 2020. The trade effects of environmental provisions in preferential trade agreements. International Trade, Investment, and the Sustainable Development Goals: World Trade Forum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108881364
  5. Cheng, I.-Hui, Wall, Howard J., 2005. Controlling for heterogeneity in gravity models of trade and integration. Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Jan), 49–63. https://doi.org/10.20955/r.87.49-64
  6. Dai, M., Yotov, Y. V., Zylkin, T., 2014. On the trade-diversion effects of free trade agreements. Economics Letters. 122, 321-325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2013.12.024
  7. Dhingra, S., Freeman, R., Huang. H, 2021. The impact of deep trade agreements on trade and welfare. LSE Centre for Economics Discussion Paper 1742. https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1742.pdf
  8. Low, P., Yeats, A., 1992. Do ‘‘dirty” industries migrate? in (Patrick Low, ed.): International Trade and the Environment, World Bank Discussion Papers, 159, The World Bank, Washington.
  9. Mattoo, A., Mulabdic, A., Ruta, M., 2017. Trade creation and trade diversion in deep agreements. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 8206. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28451
  10. Mattoo, A., Rocha, N., Ruta, M., 2020. Handbook of deep trade agreements. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34055
  11. Santos Silva, J.M.C., Tenreyro, S., 2006. The log of gravity. Review of Economics and Statistics. 88, 641–658. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest.88.4.641