E. I. KRANINA

Candidate of Economic Sciences Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences

China. WTO, trade liberalization, environmental sustainability. GM products, ecosystem services, environmental management crisis Keywords: For more than 10 years of China's participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO), the environmental situation in the country has not improved. Some of the problems associated with environmental degradation have even worsened. But there are also new opportunities and hopes.

On the one hand, for China, a country with an inefficient and nature-intensive economy, WTO accession was fraught with high energy and resource intensity of production, increasing environmental costs, as the growing demand on world markets for Chinese products stimulates the recovery of the national economy with a concomitant increase in the burden on natural systems. On the other hand, participation in the WTO sets the country the task of meeting international standards and, in particular, the requirements of the international certificate of quality of environmental management systems.

The PRC is improving legislation in the field of environmental cooperation, conservation of biodiversity, genetic resources, and development of biotechnologies; creating a platform for trade in patents and various forms of intellectual property in accordance with WTO requirements, taking into account that direct policies of WTO member countries related to environmental protection and public health do not fall under the agreements of this organization.

HOW DOES THE WTO FIT INTO INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

International environmental law is a set of principles and norms of international law that govern the relations of its subjects in the field of environmental protection and rational use of resources.¹ Environmental protection is one of the main goals of international cooperation and an integral part of the concept of international security. Relevant agreements are an important source of international environmental law.

From a legal point of view, the WTO is a multilateral agreement that regulates about 97% of world trade in goods and services. Accordingly, current environmental crisis problems of global, regional and local significance are directly and indirectly influenced by the existing WTO agreements. But these agreements are currently the least effective means of protecting the environment from the harmful effects of human activities.

The World Trade Organization is not a member of the UN and does not recognize international treaties on the protection of nature. Under its current rules, no country can regulate, at its own discretion, national policies in the field of nature protection and public health, but should form " environmental policies at all levels in such a way that they do not lead to arbitrary or unjustified discrimination against countries with similar conditions, do not create hidden barriers to trade and do not contradict the terms of other WTO agreements.""². This means that trade liberalization alone does not guarantee the protection of the environment and the improvement of people's living standards.

The dictates of international trade rules, global pricing and tariff policies affect primarily the quality of goods sold in the United States.-

In developing countries, it is often the case that developed countries restrict entry to their territories by means such as the green barrier or other environmental standards, thereby effectively stimulating the export of dirty industries to developing countries. No less significant are changes in industries that have a negative impact on the environment, including cross-border ones, through atmospheric emissions and discharges of polluted substances into water bodies.

Negative social consequences of opening up the market to more competitive goods and services - for example, increased unemployment, poverty, and a deterioration in the quality of life - often lead to increased poaching, including "rural" poaching, increased pressure on bioresources from the local population, increased conflicts in the adoption of environmental regulations, and the creation of new protected areas.

Given the severity of the situation, WTO members are increasingly showing interest in the issue of environmental cleanliness in international trade. The debate over environmental regulations and agreements continues to be the most acute after the problems of agriculture. Recently, joint efforts have created international standards that become the fundamental basis for legal regulation of environmental pollution control.

To strengthen the environmental component of economic growth, the modern methodology of environmental policy requires an assessment of the country's capabilities in the international market of "ecosystem services". Such services include the climate-forming and environment-forming functions of natural ecosystems as a whole: maintaining global biosphere stability, including in connection with the threat of climate change; preserving global biodiversity and genetic resources, regulating the entry of "greenhouse gases" into the atmosphere and carbon balance; controlling hydrological processes on land, performing anti-erosion, soil protection functions, and many others. others.

In order to avoid the illusion of "economic growth", when liberalizing the market, the system of macroeconomic development indicators should include indicators of environmental costs and "true savings", or investments, including human capital (in % of GDP). In China, as in the rest of the world, economic achievements are measured by GDP, which does not take into account the environmental costs of growth. In an attempt to correct this shortcoming, the State statistical and environmental authorities of the People's Republic of China created a working group on calculating "green GDP" in 2004. Based on pilot studies in a dozen provinces and cities, a report on the size of environmental losses for 2004 was first prepared, published in September 2006. The damage was estimated at 3.05% of GDP, or about a third of its annual growth. At the end of 2010, the Chinese media published unofficial information about the results of research in 2008, which also took into account additional losses. It turned out that the degradation of the natural environment increased by 75% compared to 2004. The Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China determines the annual economic losses caused by nature degradation for various regions of the country, ranging from 5 to 13% of GDP. About 55% of them are located in Eastern China, 26% in Central China, and 19% in Western China.³

Unfortunately, today there is no international document that clearly regulates the sphere of environmental safety. International legal documents and regulations are mostly advisory in nature, only voluntary national assessments of the environmental consequences of trade policy (WTO accession) are conducted, and there is no format or set of indicators that can be used to assess the environmental impact of trade policies.

they could form the basis for such an analysis.

As the world experience shows, despite the fact that the degree of a country's participation in solving environmental problems increases with the level of its integration into the global economy, the effectiveness of state policy in the field of environmental protection is still determined by the environmental maturity and education of the ruling power, which enjoys a monopoly right to make decisions.

To address issues of cooperation between the WTO and relevant international organizations in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development, in the absence of a special agreement on environmental issues, the Committee on Trade and Environment was established in 1995. The WTO's environmental aspects are most clearly defined in the Ministerial Declaration (Doha, 9-14 November 2001).⁴. It also suggested that countries establish programs to support an open and equitable system of international trade, environmental protection and transition to sustainable development, and make "national environmental impact assessments" of WTO accession in order to understand the impact of market liberalization on natural complexes.

Over the past five years, the WTO has begun to address the challenges of integrating environmental issues into trade negotiations, and has taken several steps to increase transparency of its activities to the public and improve the balance between trade and environmental priorities. In a recent document entitled "Trade and environment", the WTO recognized that competition caused by trade liberalization can have an adverse impact on environmental legislation.⁵ Numerous analytical studies of this problem are currently being conducted.

NEW FORM OF PARTNERSHIP

For China, environmental cooperation is a new form of partnership in investment, trade and technology transfer. Environmental cooperation with developed countries provides the country with an opportunity to accelerate its economic modernization by attracting investment in the development of energy, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, improve the level of technical equipment of its production and ensure more effective control over environmental pollution.

At the same time, China is a promising market for environmental equipment and services, and developed countries are extremely interested in gaining access to it. Competing among themselves for access to the Chinese market, foreign operators prefer not to complicate environmental cooperation with disagreements that arise when discussing global environmental issues.

In the expectation of the future growth of China's needs for environmental equipment, foreign donors who provide assistance to the country in solving its environmental problems associate it with the supply of their own technologies, which, like Japan, are modified to take into account the specifics of the Chinese market. For example, Japan has initiated a green aid program in China, which includes projects to control air pollution, treat wastewater and use it, and improve the energy efficiency of metallurgical plants and thermal power plants. All this helps to solve the tasks that China sets for itself.

Japan's interest in environmental cooperation with China, which has a similar motivation to other developed countries, is also reinforced by the fact that the People's Republic of China is the guarantor of its own environmental security, which does not show any desire to create a system of collective environmental security in the region.

Recently, international trade negotiations and consultations have focused on cross-border reallocation of river runoff and export-import of fresh water, as well as issues of sharing freshwater sources, subject to compensation for "ecosystem services" for source conservation. In the future, China, as a WTO member, will become one of the key partners of the "water-export-import sector" and enter this market of "ecosystem services".

But in order to take full advantage of integration into the international trading system and the global economy without loss to the environment, it is necessary to include the environment in the global compensation system, including on the basis of a comprehensive economic assessment of "ecosystem services". So far, the global market for such services is just beginning to gain momentum, and the PRC has a disproportionately low share in it, which does not correspond to its real contribution to global biosphere sustainability.

the woods: SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES

In the XXI century. China has entered a new stage characterized by an increase in forests - the area of forest cover and the volume of forest reserves. By 2010, the total area of forest cover reached 195 million hectares, its share increased from 16.55% (1978) to 20.36% of the country's territory. In 1949, at the time of the formation of the PRC, it was only 8.6%.

The UN Environment Programme has ranked China among the 15 countries with the most extensive area of artificial forests. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), China is a world leader in terms of growth rates and total area of forest plantations (FAO report "State of the World's Forest Resources 2009") ⁶. By 2010, the share of restored forests accounted for 34.86% of all forest complexes in the country and reached 62 million hectares, the volume of artificial forest reserves -1.961 billion cubic meters (about a third of the global figure, 1st place in the world), an average annual growth of 53.2% of the global total.

Increasing the area of green spaces is considered by the Chinese authorities as one of the priority tasks in the fight against global warming.-

and desertification of territories. By the end of the 12th five-year plan (2011-2015), the total area of forest land should increase to 309 million hectares, including 207 million hectares of forest. By 2020, the forest cover will reach 223 million hectares, accounting for more than 23% of the country's territory, by 2050 -26% and above.⁸

However, the WTO has rather a negative impact on the development of this sphere.

The main principle of this world organization is " removing any restrictions related to the place, time and method of logging to increase profit levels; opening up the world market for forest products so that more sales lead to greater profits; eliminating environmental, social and other restrictions on forest trade that reduce profits." The management of such principles leads to an increase in the consumption of forest products, the elimination of non-tariff trade barriers, and the violation of environmental laws that ensure sustainable forest management.⁹

At the same time, Russia's accession to the WTO may lead to a positive change in the structure of imports of forest products, which in China is still focused mainly on the trade of round, unpeeled (untreated) timber (roundwood) bordering Russia. The ban on the export of roundwood from Russia will cause the need to create additional infrastructure elements in forest regions.

Among the new non-traditional WTO trade objects and sources of funds for wildlife protection, we can highlight the results of activities aimed at increasing the absorption of greenhouse gases by forests.¹⁰

The Chinese Academy of Forestry estimates that the total amount of carbon stored in the country's forest cover is $ 7.811 billion. t, which annually provides purification of 494.766 billion cubic meters of water, 7.035 billion cubic meters. removes about 32 million tons of pollutants from the atmosphere and 5.001 billion tons of soil. t of dust. The cost of ecological functions of forests for carbon absorption and air purification reaches 1 trillion. yuan (about $159 billion). Between 2020 and 2050, China's forest reserves may reach 16.5 billion cubic meters, which will absorb 10-12% of total carbon dioxide emissions11.

RISKS OF INTRODUCING GM CROPS

The WTO has had some impact on the distribution of genetically modified crops (GM crops) in developing countries through trade liberalization, the establishment of an advisory body to make science-based decisions on the use of GM crops, and the monitoring of intellectual property rights. Among the possible negative environmental consequences of the introduction of these crops are genetic contamination of the natural gene pool (for example, in the regions where wild relatives of soybeans, rice, wheat grow, etc.), and an increase in the threat to public health. A report commissioned by the European Union from independent experts on the safety of genetically modified organisms (1984-1999) emphasized: "Increasing yields in such (developing) countries can be a matter of life and death. However, the irresponsible use of this technology (GMOs) is fraught with the threat of catastrophic economic consequences."¹²

The safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has been discussed many times at meetings of the Group of Eight, at conferences of the WTO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Health Organization, etc. A more detailed second EU study on this issue (2001-2010) noted: "Modern biotechnology can only contribute to improving well - being if the regulatory framework (for GM crops) is scientifically sound, predictable, transparent and balanced. It is necessary to take into account not only the risks associated with any technological innovations, but also their benefits " ¹³. However, due to the publication in September 2012 of the results of a study led by the French molecular biologist Seralini, which linked genetically modified corn with deadly carcinogenic effects on rats, the European Commission is conducting additional experiments ¹⁴.

With its accession to the WTO, the PRC found itself in the sphere of global distribution of GMOs, GM plants and GM products. China has an independent market for GM products, and a national mechanism for legal regulation of genetic engineering activities and their information support has been formed-safety regulations for the receipt and transfer of GMOs containing recombinant DNA, etc., as well as regulations for the introduction of GM crops, GM products, and GM feed to the market. Methodological guidelines, standards and recommendations have been developed. This also applies to food products from GM sources.

The PRC is only taking the first steps to enter the international market for genetic resources and use the revenues generated from this. In order to prepare for the possible revival of the open (not "black", as it is observed now) market, a platform is being created for trading rights, patents, and various forms of intellectual property. So far, the system of patenting breeding achievements, especially those based on the original transgenic varieties already included in the State Register, is not sufficiently developed. There is a lack of legal practice of licensing agreements between owners of intellectual property patents. Administrative and policy measures, as well as financial mechanisms that determine equal access to genetic resources and fair distribution of benefits from their use (commercial and other uses) are still not fully active.

The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards, which regulates the procedures for sanitary and phytosanitary control, is becoming one of the key ones in environmental terms. It expands the scope of phytosanitary control and control of invasions of alien species within the framework of ji-

WTO announcements. In the WTO member countries, the risk assessment of economically significant introduced species ("migrants")-pests and weeds in crop production, animal husbandry, forestry and water management - is carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the FAO and the European Plant Protection Organization. International standards in order to ensure the consistency (harmonization) of phytosanitary standards used for plant protection in different countries and to remove unjustified restrictions in international trade are established by the International Plant Protection Convention. However, it regulates actions only in the narrow area of movement of quarantine species themselves, whose harm (potential or real), expressed in economic categories, has already been proven and accepted at least on a bilateral basis (exporting country and importing country).

With the liberalization of the market for agricultural products, the loss of biodiversity associated with traditional agriculture is obvious, so it is necessary to take into account the specifics of foreign trade in agricultural products on favorable conditions for the country, including excluding negative environmental consequences. Significant damage to agriculture is caused by introduced species, which are weeds, pests, or competitive hydrobionts (marine and freshwater organisms) that displace commercial fish or invertebrate species. There is a risk of introducing"migrant" species into natural ecosystems, which ultimately leads to their loss, as well as all the species associated with them.

Already, the preliminary list of"migrant" species includes about 1 thousand plant species and more than 500 animal species (vertebrates and invertebrates) from most of the world's biogeographic regions, mainly from East Asia and North America. The number of introduced and naturalized species is growing every year, and the areas and water areas they occupy are increasing by thousands of hectares.

China has an insufficiently developed system of patenting and protecting intellectual property rights, which allows taking into account the commercial interests of owners and users of goods and services provided by biodiversity. As a result, there is a tendency to expand the ranges of "alien" species, which are competitive and aggressive and can displace native plant and animal species and lead to catastrophic changes in the biodiversity of large regions. Several dozen species of especially valuable animals have already been threatened with extinction as a result of the reduction in the area of the traditional agricultural landscape.¹⁵

WTO accession requires a country to comply with its obligations under Articles 15 and 16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (ratified in 1995) and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (ratified at the 5th plenary session of the first session of the 11th National People's Congress in March 2008) ^.16

ECOLOGY AS A COMPETITIVE TOOL

In the WTO process, it is extremely difficult to separate environmental causes from business interests in the competitive struggle for access to natural resources and sales markets, as well as in achieving corporate interests, foreign economic and foreign policy goals. Every WTO-related law passes a "necessity test". The WTO is based on the export orientation of national economies, and environmental protection measures, first of all, imply production costs and restrictions, and a reduction in trade at a certain stage. Environmental litigation weakens national environmental laws.

China's dispute with the EU, the United States, Japan and a number of other countries over export quotas for rare earth metals, a group of raw materials that is extracted almost exclusively in China, is typical. They are a collection of 17 elements that are common in the Earth's crust, but are usually dispersed and rarely found in concentrated form.

This is a valuable strategic raw material that is widely used in advanced scientific and technical industries. Today, no modern production in the field of mechanical engineering, radio electronics, instrument engineering, etc. can do without it. In China, there are a total of 169 enterprises engaged in the extraction of rare earth concentrates and their separation from impurities. The country's share in the international market of such products is approximately 87%. In 2011, China produced 125 thousand tons of rare earth element concentrates. The production volume of this industry for the year reached 24.53 billion rubles. RMB (about $3.6 billion), an increase of 1.47 billion. RMB ($216 million) it is less than the indicator registered in 201017.

Back in June 2009, the European Union complained to the WTO about China's misuse of restrictions on the export of certain raw materials.

In 2010, the Chinese government restricted the export of rare earths, introduced quotas and raised taxes on mining, which caused a rise in prices for this commodity on the world market and strong discontent among European, American and Japanese producers. The EU countries were concerned that the PRC, being the world's leading exporter of a number of raw materials, sets export duties and quotas in violation of WTO agreements, and this leads to a difference between export prices and domestic prices by one and a half to two times. China has a global market share of more than 50% for the extraction of materials declared in the European Commission's appeal, and more than 80% for phosphorus, magnesium, manganese and refractory bauxite grades. Accordingly, EU companies that use these raw materials in production were initially doomed to higher costs.

The negative effect of the trade policy was experienced by the segments of the chemical, steel and non-ferrous metallurgy industries, whose total share in the EU GDP is 4% and is equivalent to 500 thousand jobs. In July 2011, the WTO Dispute Settlement Commission granted a request initiated by the EU, the United States and Japan, but the PRC

submitted an application to the WTO Court of Appeal ¹⁸.

At the end of 2011, the first part of the export quota for rare earth metals for 2012 was established, which amounted to 10,5 thousand tons. Beijing tried to justify export controls with the need to save natural resources, arguing that export restrictions led to a decrease in domestic mining and helped save these non-renewable resources: "Control over the export of resource-based products associated with high energy consumption and environmental pollution was extremely necessary to reduce emissions, prevent economic development from depending on the raw material base, and reduce tensions between the coal, oil, and electricity industries." ¹⁹

Although article XX of GATT-1994 provides for special exceptions that allow the application of measures aimed at protecting the environment and public health, the WTO arbitration panel did not agree with Beijing's position: "Neither measures to implement export restrictions, nor existing laws and regulations imply in their texts that export restrictions contribute to the implementation or are part of a comprehensive economic policy." a program aimed at fulfilling the stated goal of protecting the environment." As a result, by February 2012, the appellate body of the Dispute settlement commission found that the export restrictions used by the Chinese side did not comply with WTO rules and obligations assumed by the PRC when it joined the organization.²⁰ As a result, China had to accept the WTO decision and, while expressing "deep regret" over the commission's decision, recognize the need to implement "a correct policy for managing commodity flows in the considered items." Beijing noted that in order to meet the demand on the international market, the volume of the quota for the export of rare earth metals from China for 2012 will remain at the level of 2011. In theory, the PRC may resort to such measures as veiled artificial reduction in the volume of raw material production to maintain world prices at a high level. However, if domestic and global prices are equalized, Chinese industry will also suffer significant damage from such actions.

* * *

The last decade has seen the most dynamic growth in environmental investment in China's history. A multilateral system of financial investment in environmental protection measures has been established, and a set of measures has been developed to accelerate the development of the environmental industry and to develop new technologies. Environmental legislation has gone through a path of intensive development: an inventory of environmental standards that do not meet international standards has been carried out, and new ones that meet international standards have been approved.

The regulatory framework for land and water use was reviewed ²¹.

The National People's Congress (NPC) has established an Environmental and Resource Protection Commission. It develops and reviews draft laws related to environmental and resource protection, prepares reports based on this review, monitors the implementation of laws, puts forward environmental projects for discussion, and exchanges information and experience on environmental and resource protection with parliaments of other countries.

At the 5th session of the National People's Congress of the 11th convocation in March 2012, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council of the People's Republic of China emphasized in his report on the work of the Government: "China will never sacrifice the ecological environment and people's health in exchange for economic development. It will be able to focus foreign capital on more significant investment in high-tech, energy-efficient and environmental protection industries. " ²²

In the future, China will continue to improve its environmental legislation in accordance with WTO requirements, taking into account that the WTO agreements do not cover direct policies of WTO member countries related to environmental protection and public health.

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¹ http://www.xserver.ru/user/mzekp

² http://www.wto.ru/monitor.asp?f=selhoz

³ http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjfx/ztfx/jnggkf30n/t20110103_40251634.htm

⁴ http://www.sco-ec.gov.cn/crweb/scor/info/Article.jsp?a_no=34979&col_no-85#

⁵ http://www.wto.ru/monitor.asp?f=selhoz

⁶ www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2011 -03/06/content_391693.htm

⁷ http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/newsandcomingevents/t20100226_402623115.htm

⁸ Xinhua, 27.04.2011.

⁹ http://www.cbio.ru/modules/news/article.php7storyid-3248

¹⁰ http://www.resursles.ru

¹¹ http://www.assoc.fareast.ru/fe.nsf/pages/fecon_prot_100330.htm

¹² GMO Research in Perspective. Report of a workshop held by External Advisory Groups. Quality of Life and Management of Living Resourses Resourses. EU Fifth Framework Programme. Brussels, 9 - 10 September 1999, p. 4 - http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp5/pdf/eag-gmo.pdf

¹³ European Commission. A Decade of EU-funded GMO Research (2001 - 2010). Directorate-General for Research Communication Unit, 2010, p. 208 - http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-funded_gmo_research.pd f

^{Butler Dedan.} 14 Rat Study Sparks GM Furor // Nature, September 27, 2012 - http://www.nature.eom/polopoly_fs/l.11471l/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/ pdf/489484a.pdf

¹⁵ http://www.chinapro.ru/law/32/

¹⁶ http://www.sco-ec.gov.cn/crweb/scor/info/Article.jsp?a_no-34979&col_no=85#

¹⁷ http://russian.people.com.cn/95199/204216/index.html

¹⁸ http://www.russ chinatrade.ru/ru/useful-info/cn-foreign-trade-regulation

¹⁹ http://www.russian.china.org.cn. 08.02.2012.

²⁰ Ibidem.

²¹ Chinese Environmental Daily. 18.09.2011 - http://www.cenews.com.cn/english/

²² http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2011-03/17/nw.D110000renmrb_20110317_4-0 2.htm?div=-1

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