Technical barriers to trade have caused great damage to China's foreign trade economy, and China's small and medium-sized enterprises are most threatened by foreign technical barriers to trade. Technical barriers to trade are undoubtedly a challenge to the competitiveness of China's export products, but it is also an excellent opportunity for enterprises to integrate the market.
What are technical barriers to trade?
After China's entry into the WTO, the technical barriers to trade have intensified. If you use "search engine" to search, the number of related articles or reports has exceeded one million. It has been four years since China joined the WTO. Many people are looking back on the past four years and predicting what will happen in the future. Here, I only share with you my personal understanding of foreign technical barriers to trade.
Everything in our country must be traced back to the source. When we talk about foreign technical barriers to trade, we must also talk about its definition and translation, that is, what is technical barriers to trade, or technical barriers to trade or technical barriers. But I personally think it is more appropriate to translate English "technical barriers to trade" into "technical barriers to trade", because it uses some technical measures related to product safety, which restricts the development of international trade. These measures are generally considered to have three categories: technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures.
The TBT Agreement of WTO does not give a clear definition of technical barriers to trade, but points out in the preface: "Recognized international standards and conformity assessment systems can make important contributions in this regard by improving production efficiency and facilitating international trade; Therefore, it is expected to encourage the formulation of such international standards and conformity assessment systems; However, it is expected to ensure that technical regulations and standards, including the requirements for packaging, signs and labels, and the conformity assessment procedures of technical regulations and standards will not cause unnecessary obstacles to international trade; Recognizing that no country should be prevented from taking necessary measures to ensure the quality of its export products, or to protect the life or health of human beings, animals or plants and the environment, or to prevent fraud, but the implementation of these measures should not constitute a means of arbitrary or unreasonable discrimination between countries under the same circumstances, or constitute a disguised restriction on international trade, and should be consistent with the provisions of this Agreement in other aspects. "
From the development history of TBT Agreement, we can see that it aims to eliminate technical barriers to trade and reduce its impact on the development of international trade through various principles and relevant provisions, and its target is those countries that "create unnecessary obstacles to international trade" or whose "implementation methods" constitute a means of arbitrary or unreasonable discrimination against countries in the same situation, or constitute disguised restrictions on international trade, and are inconsistent with the provisions of this Agreement in other aspects.
This paper holds that there are two words here, one is "technical trade measures" and the other is "technical barriers to trade". Technical trade measures refer to "technical regulations and standards, including requirements for packaging, signs and labels, and conformity assessment procedures for technical regulations and standards" formulated and implemented by WTO members for reasonable purposes permitted by the agreement. Those "causing unnecessary obstacles to international trade" or their "implementation methods" constitute a means of arbitrary or unreasonable discrimination against countries in the same situation, or constitute disguised restrictions on international trade, and shall be consistent with the provisions of this agreement in other aspects. This paper holds that "technical trade measures" is a neutral word, while "technical barriers to trade" should be a derogatory term. From the scope, the former is greater than the latter, and the latter is only a part of the former.
Although the WTO official in charge of TBT affairs said that there is no intention to divide the measures or barriers mentioned in the TBT agreement from a positive or negative level. However, in practice, all countries are trying to eliminate trade barriers through negotiation, consultation or consultation, and everyone should not advocate setting up barriers.
And in Chinese, barriers, like obstacles, are generally derogatory. In this way, we can logically describe it as: "Technical trade measures implemented by a country for some reasons permitted by the WTO have become technical barriers to trade because they violate the relevant principles or regulations of the WTO, cause unnecessary obstacles to imported products or cause arbitrary or unreasonable discrimination, and hinder the normal development of international trade."
Some domestic scholars' articles also define technical barriers to trade based on this understanding: "Technical barriers to trade mainly refer to the trade barriers formed by mandatory and non-mandatory technical regulations and standards formulated by importing countries and the procedures for evaluating the conformity of inspection goods, that is, through the formulation of laws, decrees, regulations and rules, the establishment of technical standards, certification systems, inspection and quarantine systems, etc., harsh and cumbersome standards are formulated for foreign imported goods to improve imports. Such definitions regard these technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures as means to protect domestic industries and restrict foreign products.
Citation website:/wmks/wx/L310.htmii. Reasons for the formation of technical barriers to trade
Now, we can often see reports from newspapers and the Internet that some products exported by China to a certain country have encountered technical barriers to trade. There is so much news, it seems that foreign technical barriers to trade are rampant, and exports to us are like a scourge. Based on the understanding that technical trade measures are neutral words and technical barriers to trade are only a part of them, technical trade measures should be decomposed first.
This paper holds that foreign technical trade measures can be roughly divided into the following three categories: (1) the requirements of foreign technical trade measures are reasonable, and Chinese enterprises have the production technology to meet the requirements; (2) Foreign requirements are reasonable, but at present, most domestic enterprises do not have the production level that meets foreign requirements; (3) The measures implemented abroad are unreasonable, discriminatory or violate the relevant provisions of the TBT Agreement.
The above-mentioned three types of technical trade measures may cause losses and negative effects on China's related export products, but all these measures cannot be called technical barriers to trade just because of the loss or negative effects.
This paper holds that the negative impact caused by the first type of technical trade measures should be borne by the relevant production enterprises and export enterprises. With the improvement of people's living standard, it is inevitable to put forward new reasonable requirements for product quality and safety, which represents social progress. As the saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". Enterprises should actively obtain this information, adjust production technology, and produce products that meet the requirements of importing countries. Unfortunately, enterprises have suffered losses due to such technical trade measures, and these measures should not be regarded as technical barriers to trade.
There are two kinds of negative effects caused by the second type of technical trade measures: (1) foreign countries require advance, without considering the situation of most countries; (2) The production level of enterprises in China really lags behind that of most countries. In this case, the enterprise should first comply with this advanced requirement, and then look for the gap, ask questions and find countermeasures from the enterprise itself. In order to avoid the above situation, on the one hand, enterprises should keep abreast of the changes in product standards and quality requirements of importing countries (regions), implement the strategy of "winning by quality", and change passive restrictions into active adjustments; On the other hand, enterprises can also raise their own gaps, specific problems and difficulties in meeting the requirements of these advanced technologies with the relevant government departments, and ask the relevant departments to communicate with the governments of the countries where the measures are implemented in various ways to seek a reasonable transition period and help enterprises reduce losses. Because such technical trade measures are formulated for reasonable purposes, even if they have an adverse impact on China's exports, they can't be completely denied, and they can't be called "technical barriers to trade" in general, so they should be treated differently. In any case, we can't simply use the reasons such as "I have been producing, selling and exporting such products for many years without any problems" or "why other countries don't have such requirements" to justify with the countries that implement the measures. This is tantamount to claiming that our country's products have been unqualified, our consumers have been using these unqualified products and so on. This has caused other countries to pay more attention to and restrict China's export products.
The third category of technical trade measures is qualitatively different from the above two categories. Because the contents and implementation methods of such measures violate the relevant provisions of the WTO (if it is a member of the WTO), or do not conform to international practices, or do not abide by bilateral agreements, China's export enterprises or products are discriminated against and their legitimate interests are damaged, which can be called "technical barriers to trade", so enterprises, especially government departments, should pay close attention to it.
In practice, technical trade measures that harm China's export enterprises mostly belong to the first two categories mentioned above. A survey by the Ministry of Science and Technology can also prove this point. In 2003, the China Science and Technology Promotion Research Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology and china enterprise confederation * * * surveyed 260 export enterprises in Tianjin, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces, showing that 8 1% of China's export enterprises were affected by foreign technical trade measures. From the perspective of the impact of foreign technical trade measures on enterprises' exports, enterprises that thought foreign technical trade measures were unreasonable accounted for 18.7% of the total enterprises surveyed. In this case, it is inappropriate for us to call those foreign technical trade measures that have an impact after implementation as "enterprises don't understand foreign technical standards and can't meet foreign product standards".
At present, information technology is so developed that no country can secretly formulate a technical regulation, standard or conformity assessment and suddenly implement it-unless we ignore it. It has been four years since China joined the WTO. With the increase of foreign trade volume, its influence in the world is increasing day by day. No country "openly" applies the third category of technical trade measures to China. Therefore, we should try our best to avoid speculation on foreign technical trade measures, and do not make general barriers.
After China's entry into WTO, there are two famous cases known as technical barriers to trade, namely, the EU imposed import ban on China's animal-derived products and formulated CR standard for lighters. Space is limited here, so I won't repeat the case flow. However, if we carefully analyze these two cases, the key factors that ultimately lead to losses, negative effects or passive situations are the untimely transmission and sharing of information and the lack of interaction in the follow-up work. In other words, if relevant information can be obtained in time and distributed to relevant departments and enterprises, and relevant EU departments and institutions can interact effectively, it is possible to avoid its restrictions on China's related export products. Of course, the results of the above two situations are also different. Thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant departments, the CR standard of the European Union has not restricted China's lighters exported to Europe for the time being, but it is still a "sword" hanging over China's lighter export enterprises. Although the ban on animal-derived products has been lifted for most products at present, it has actually caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to many production enterprises and export enterprises in China, and the lessons are quite profound.
Citation website:/wmks/wx/l 311.htmiii. Restrictive role of technical barriers to trade
Based on the above analysis, most Chinese enterprises can't meet foreign product standards because they don't understand foreign technical standards or requirements, or because of other reasons (such as reducing costs and improving competitive advantage), thus causing losses to enterprises. This paper holds that this kind of loss should not be attributed to foreign technical trade measures, but to the decision-making mistakes of enterprises, which is a reasonable loss for enterprises. As long as enterprises pay a little attention, these losses can be completely avoided.
What are the restrictive effects of technical barriers to trade on China's export products?
Barriers, like thresholds, are market access conditions, and their existence is an objective phenomenon. As a result, the interests of some enterprises are protected, while the interests of other enterprises are harmed. Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) is the fact that some enterprises cannot meet the technical requirements (including safety, environment and society) of their products by improving them. Some of these requirements are reasonable, that is, some are unreasonable in the second category, that is, the third category of technical trade measures. As we all know, there are three main forms of technical barriers to trade: technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures. The interaction of these three forms of technical barriers to trade makes the cost of imported products increase and the competitiveness decrease. In short, the technical regulations put forward new mandatory requirements for products. How to implement this requirement, the countries that implement the Measures also list relevant standards and conformity assessment procedures for enterprises' reference, that is, products produced according to these standards or products that pass the relevant conformity assessment procedures will be presumed to meet the new mandatory requirements. The new requirements mean that enterprises need to update production equipment and adopt new production technologies. Enterprises that produce according to the new standards can do so if they have the ability to prove that their products meet the requirements. If their own technical ability is not good, or some countries force some kind of certification, enterprises can only entrust a third-party certification and accreditation body to conduct conformity assessment. If qualified assessors are limited to some institutions in a certain region, it will cause great cost pressure and inconvenience to imported products.
At present, the main reasons for the formation of technical barriers to trade are the different standards and conformity assessment procedures of products in different countries and the lack of mutual recognition agreements. If the export market of an enterprise is scattered, its products must meet the needs of different destination countries, be produced according to different standards, and be evaluated for conformity. Enterprises that can't afford these repeated costs will inevitably be blocked from the market.
So, which enterprises will be blocked by technical barriers to trade?
General small and medium-sized enterprises.
Technical barriers to trade are undoubtedly a challenge to the competitiveness of China's export products, but it is also an excellent opportunity for enterprises to integrate the market. Although those enterprises with foresight and international competitive strategy call for the abolition of technical barriers to trade, they are often advocates of technical barriers to trade and have always cherished these technical barriers. Because barriers objectively make some enterprises (sometimes most competitors) unable to pass, resulting in fewer competitors, increased profits and reshuffled market share. In fact, the various technical barriers to trade currently faced have a very negative impact on some large enterprises in China, small and medium-sized enterprises with certain scale and strength, and foreign-funded enterprises established in China by some developed countries. Those small enterprises that do not pay attention to product safety, environmental protection and scientific research investment, have low production technology and level, and are weak in international competitiveness, are helpless to technical barriers to trade.
Personally, I usually look at the influence of foreign technical barriers to trade on China enterprises by the three-point method. Some enterprises are not afraid of foreign technical barriers to trade, and they have long foreseen and prepared; Some enterprises have various difficulties in technology, capital and manpower, but they can be overcome by paying attention to the existing problems and actively solving them through one stage of efforts; The remaining enterprises will not be able to effectively get rid of the technical barriers to trade, which are sometimes fatal. The Directive on Scrapping Electronic and Electrical Products (WEEE) and the Directive on Restricting the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electronic and Electrical Products (RoHS) issued by the European Union since the beginning of 2003 have caused great sensation in domestic related enterprises. Now that two years have passed, the implementation of the two directives is just around the corner. What is the reaction of enterprises? Through many field investigations, the rationality of the above sub-methods in this paper is confirmed again.
The main work we are talking about in dealing with foreign technical barriers to trade is determined by the reaction of the second type of enterprises. The first type of enterprises have no difficulties, let alone respond. The third type of enterprises do have difficulties, but generally they cannot represent the mainstream of an industry. Therefore, if the second type of enterprises can finally resolve the possible negative impact of foreign technical barriers to trade through their own work, they should be considered successful. In fact, the rapid growth of China's export trade in recent years also proves that foreign technical barriers to trade have not had a huge negative impact on China. Therefore, we should face up to and objectively evaluate the technical barriers to trade, and we can't easily use the word "ban" to describe the restrictive effect of foreign technical barriers to trade on China. Although many media like to use this word to attract readers' attention.
Citation website:/wmks/wx/L312.htmiv. Suggestions on Technical Barriers to Trade
Nevertheless, we still need to pay attention to technical barriers to trade, because more and more WTO members inform the relevant WTO committees of their technical trade measures every year. If these measures are not properly dealt with, it will easily have a negative impact on China's export products. When we found that the implementation of a measure formed a trade barrier to China's export products, and then negotiated, the situation was already very passive. Especially at present, some technical trade measures have been integrated and interacted with other forms of trade restrictions, such as anti-dumping, countervailing, safeguard measures and intellectual property infringement. The negative effect on international trade is greater and more difficult to deal with. For example, there are patent issues and anti-dumping issues in the process of formulating CR standards for lighters in the European Union.
As mentioned above, technical barriers to trade refer to the third and second categories of technical trade measures. This situation determines that it is difficult for a single enterprise or even a certain department to deal with it alone. It is also a comprehensive work, which should be completed by government departments, industry intermediary organizations and enterprises.
After China joined the WTO, the Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, Ministry of Science and Technology and other departments began to deal with technical barriers to trade. At present, some departments have also set up inter-ministerial liaison meetings (that is, meetings attended by relevant departments in the State Council) to coordinate the response work of various departments, and there is still much room for improvement. The main problem of these mechanisms is that the information disclosure, analysis and enjoyment system are flawed, and it is difficult for relevant departments to form a joint force. Sometimes, the related external caliber and actions are contradictory, which directly affects the response effect.
In 2003, when I attended the TBT regular meeting in Geneva, I was fortunate enough to give up my departmental views with my colleagues in the above departments and discuss how to effectively deal with foreign technical barriers to trade. After a heated debate, everyone's understanding is as follows:
(a) share information quickly after obtaining it
At present, it is unrealistic for a department to be responsible for this kind of information. Each department has its own different units and mechanisms to collect information. The integration work involves the adjustment of functions and institutions, which is very difficult. Therefore, the focus should be on solving the problem of obtaining information from different departments and channels, that is, realizing the rapid transmission and enjoyment of information. Therefore, it is necessary to have a separate permanent organization to collect and transmit the information of foreign technical trade measures obtained by relevant departments, and immediately send the information to the personnel in charge of this work of relevant departments, enterprises and industry intermediary organizations (including import and export chambers of commerce, relevant associations and scientific research institutions) through the Internet, not anyone.
(2) Construction technical support
The mechanism invites experts in related fields to form technical support. They can make a preliminary analysis and relevant evaluation of a certain information in a relatively short time, have a preliminary understanding of a certain measure, try to classify the measure into one of the above three categories, and calculate its impact on China's exports.
(3) Treat them differently and take different countermeasures.
For the first kind of foreign technical trade measures, the relevant domestic enterprises should be informed immediately and suggested to produce according to the requirements of the importing country. If enterprises can't take the initiative to do this, it may affect the reputation of most of China's export products, and AQSIQ should intervene to prevent the export of unqualified products. This is also one of the reasons why the quality inspection department carries out statutory inspection on some products at present. For the second measure, the science and technology department should intervene and have the ability to contact some universities and scientific research institutions to solve the technical difficulties faced by enterprises, or provide new production processes and technologies to related enterprises, or provide scientific research support. The Ministry of Commerce may also ask foreign governments to consider the possibility of extending the transition period before the measures are implemented. For the third kind of measures, the Ministry of Commerce should be the main body, and relevant departments, intermediary organizations and related enterprises in the State Council should actively eliminate discriminatory technical trade measures against China through bilateral and multilateral channels.
(four) technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment issues
The existing technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures should be adjusted, and the standards and conformity assessment procedures should be separated from the technical regulations, so that the standards and conformity assessment procedures can be easily integrated with international standards; Actively participate in the formulation of international standards and infiltrate China elements in the process of international standards formulation; Reform the certification system, improve the capacity building of domestic certification institutions and promote international mutual recognition.
It should be noted that in the whole response process, information and technology sharing between relevant departments is very important, but each department plays different roles in different links and situations.
If a foreign technical barrier to trade is unfavorable, the reason is that after four years of work and efforts, the above mechanism has not been effectively improved and played its role. This paper always believes that in the process of improving the response to foreign technical barriers to trade and solving its restrictions on China's export products, the basic work is information collection, analysis and sharing, the key work is to establish a huge expert database, logistics support is a reasonable division of labor and cooperation between departments, and the active participation of enterprises and industry intermediary organizations is a continuous driving force.
Citation website:/wmks/wx/L313.htm.