Measures of Green Packaging Faced with Technical Barriers to Trade (I)

Abstract: The concept, standards of green packaging and green packaging technology barriers in developed countries were introduced. It was proposed that China’s corporate management and green awareness should be strengthened, and ISO 14000 series environmental standards should be strictly implemented so that enterprises could obtain “environmental certification” and product packaging for the universal world market. Green sign. We must speed up the application of new and high technologies and technological innovation, adopt a green manufacturing model, and actively adapt to and utilize green packaging so that our enterprises and products can be brought into line with the world trend. Ultimately break through technical barriers to make enterprises and products have international competitiveness.

Keywords: green packaging trade technical barriers coping strategies

1 Introduction

Tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers are two major means of trade protection between countries. After China’s accession to the WTO, tariff barriers and some non-tariff barriers, such as quotas and licensing systems, have gradually lost or weakened their role. With the rapid development of high and new technology, the influence of technological factors in international trade is increasing. The developed countries rely on their scientific and technological advantages to maximize control of the technical leadership of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEO). As far as possible, domestic technical regulations, standards, and inspection technologies have been incorporated into international standards, which has led to a fundamental change in the structure of TBT. They put forward some new technical barriers to non-tariff trade, and put forward some strict and even harsh restrictions on export products of other countries in order to increase the difficulty of import, and ultimately achieve the purpose of limiting imports.

Technical barriers to trade mainly include technical regulations, standards and conformity assessment procedures, packaging and labeling requirements, commodity inspection and quarantine regulations, environmental barriers, and information technology barriers to electronic commerce. Since each commodity has a package, whether the packaging can meet the above requirements has become a key issue that breaks through the technical barriers.

After the mankind entered the 21st century, protecting the environment, saving resources, and controlling the population have become the three major problems that constrain the sustainable development of the entire society. Packaging, as an organic component of the product, consumes a lot of resources and emits a large amount of waste. It is one of the two major sources of resources and the environment. For this reason, the developed countries have put forward the concept and measures of green packaging, and have carried out green transformation of traditional packaging, reducing resource consumption and controlling pollution to the environment. The future belongs to “green products” and it is only possible for green products to occupy the market. Products without “green marks” cannot enter the international market. So for the underdeveloped countries, the green packaging of products forms a trade technical barrier that restricts the export of their products.

2 Green packaging and its standard [1,2]

Green packaging refers to moderate packaging that can be reused, recycled or degraded, and does not cause harm to the human body or the environment throughout the product's life cycle. Internationally recognized green packaging should have the connotation of "3R1D", namely, reduction, reuse, recycling and degradation. We must not only look at the environmental pollution caused by packaging waste, but also pay attention to the environmental pollution caused by the production process. However, it is more difficult to solve the environmental pollution caused by the production process. Therefore, the main contradiction in the current green packaging is to solve the problem of packaging waste that can be recycled, recycled, or reused. To this end, internationally established special green standards, many developed countries have also introduced a lot of their own standards, regulations, decrees, etc. to ensure the development and implementation of green packaging projects.

In the 1970s, the developed countries launched a "green revolution" movement centered on "protecting the environment and saving resources". Its main purpose is to change the traditional industrial production of "a lot of waste of resources and arbitrarily damaging the environment." the way. In addition, environmental labels for product packaging have been used and implemented. The environmental labels of various countries are basically based on the standards of various countries, and the differences are relatively large, which objectively play a role in technical barriers to international trade.

In order to establish environmental management standards like quality management, ISO established the "Environmental Strategy Advisory Group" (SAGE) in 1991 and the "Environmental Management Technical Committee" (TC207) in June 1993. The number of people participating in the ISO/TC207 annual meeting has been increasing year by year, which fully demonstrates the importance of environmental management and the positive attitude of all countries involved, because countries participating in standard setting will reduce and avoid trade barriers related to green packaging and the environment.

To date, the TC 207 Committee has developed the ISO 14000 standard series, which is the new international standard for “green products” and the new international standard that guides the “green packaging”. The standard system is as follows:
ISO14000～14009 Environmental Management System (EMS)
ISO14010～14019 Environmental Auditing (EA)
ISO14020～14029 Environmental Marking (EL)
ISO14030～14039 Environmental Behavior Assessment (EPE)
ISO14040 to 14049 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
ISO14050~14059 Terms and Definitions Environmental Guidelines in the ISO14060 to 14069 Product Standards (EAPS)
Preparation for ISO14070~14100
The International Environmental Standards ISO14000 series is a large standard system consisting of six subsystems.

The goal of the environmental management standard ISO14000 is to: through the implementation of this standard, standardize the environmental behavior of all organizations such as companies, companies, manufacturers, workshops, and social organizations, reduce the environmental pollution caused by various activities (or production), and maximize the savings Resources and energy, improve the quality of the environment, maintain the coordinated development of the environment and economy, and promote the sustainable development of the economy.

(to be continued)