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FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT POLICY AND 
POLLUTION HAVEN IN CHINA 
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
ECON 662 
TIMEA GREGO 
RENO, APRIL 2012
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
CONTENTS 
I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................2 
Aim of the Investigation...............................................................................................................3 
Explanation of the Research Approach........................................................................................3 
II. THE POLLUTION HAVEN HYPOTHESIS..................................................................................................4 
Theory of Pollution Havens..........................................................................................................4 
International examples and evidence............................................................................................5 
III. CHINA'S POLLUTION PROBLEMS..........................................................................................................7 
IV. ECONOMIC REFORM AND FDI..............................................................................................................9 
a. Background of Economic Reform............................................................................................9 
1. Reform of the micro-management institution....................................................................10 
2. Reform of the banking system............................................................................................12 
3. Success of the Economic Reform.......................................................................................13 
4. Problems with the Reform..................................................................................................13 
b. The link between International Openness, Trade, and FDI....................................................14 
c. China's Accession to the WTO...............................................................................................16 
V. IS CHINA A POLLUTION HAVEN?.........................................................................................................17 
a.How has reform affected pollution?........................................................................................17 
b. Which industries are investing in China?...............................................................................18 
c. Is the FDI the cause of pollution?...........................................................................................20 
d. How does WTO accession affect the protection of global environment?..............................23 
1. The link between environmental issues and the obligation of WTO rules.........................23 
VI. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................25 
VII. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................................25 
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I. INTRODUCTION 
This research paper focuses on the linkage between China’s economic reforms, export oriented 
FDI policies, and its respond to China’s heavy coal dependence. 
Since Mao’s heavy industry strategy, China has experienced a remarkable economic 
development. As the consequence of the rapid industrialisation, its primary energy powered 
economy is booming in an extent that can be dangerous for the global economy and the 
unexpected environmental degradations that accompanied it. 
One of the core driving forces of the global economy is the international trade and 
relationship. The interaction of trade liberalisation and environmental protection are important 
aspects in the global economy. The global flow of merchandise goods through intra- and 
interregional trade was $ 12,178 billion although this accounts for a 12% decline in 2009; due to 
a 2.4% fall in the world GDP. Many factors have contributed to the sharp decline for instance the 
global economic crises and decline in consumer demand. The leading major economies in 
exported merchandised goods were China, Germany and the U.S.A. in 2009. Additional to this, 
China increased its world share in imported merchandised goods by 1.0% in 2009 compare to the 
previous year. As a consequence of the increase, China has become not only the world largest 
exporter but also the second largest importer. The U.S.A. kept its third position as an exporter of 
merchandised goods and leads the international trade as an importer (International Trade Statistic, 
WTO 2010). As can be seen from the above example, international trade is one of the driving 
engines of the global economic development. Therefore, it is very important to analyse the 
linkage between trade liberalisation and environmental degradations. 
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Aim of the Investigation 
It has become clear after an interdisciplinary literature review, that there is little precedence for 
investigating the linkage between China’s export focused FDI policy and the pollution haven 
hypotheses. Therefore, the immediate motivation for this research is to explore the impact of 
China FDI policy on the global environment, and how China has become the cheap energy haven 
of the World Trade. 
Explanation of the Research Approach 
The present study will analyse China’s open market approach by analysing the complexity of 
China’s FDI policy and its serious consequences on the global environment. In additional to this, 
the research paper will highlight a missing relationship of the pollution haven theory which sees 
the pollution haven perspective from a different view. 
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II. THE POLLUTION HAVEN HYPOTHESIS 
Theory of Pollution Havens 
One of the most significant debates of international relations, trade liberalisation and 
environmental protection is whether a country without a strict environmental protection program 
when other countries do it increases their comparative advantage in the production of 
merchandised goods and services that are harmful for the environment. Under trade liberalisation, 
the hypothesis predicts that there is precedence that multinational companies will relocate to 
developing countries to utilise their weak environmental regulations. According to Baumol and 
Oates (1998), developing countries, for instance China and India, do not limit environmental 
pollution to improve their economic status, they specialise in its comparative advantage and “will 
become the respiratory of the world’s dirty industries”. Research often draws the linkage between 
China as a pollution haven (e.g. the energy use related increased CO2 emission) and its 
unregulated environmental program as one of the main reason of the country’s rapid economic 
development. In addition to this, numerous works have been published on the connection 
between the foreign direct investment and the environmental degradation in China in regional 
dimension (Dean and Wang, 2004; MacDermott, 2009; Smarzynska and Wei-Jin, 2004). 
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International examples and evidence 
The initial aim of this section was to provide international examples and evidences for supporting 
the pollution haven hypothesis. However, after conducting an interdisciplinary literature review, 
it has become clear that researchers mainly took the economist perspective to analyse the 
credibility of the hypothesis, and failed to point out a very important factor behind the debate, is 
the cheap energy resource. There have been numerous empirical studies on the interaction 
between economic growth, environmental degradation and the existence or non-existence of 
pollution havens. Much of the work has, to date, focused on the differentiations in environmental 
regulations between countries and the possible relocations of firms; analysed the capital intensity 
of pollution intensive sectors (Cole and Elliott, 2005); the site choices of equity joint venture 
(EJV) project in China (Dean, Lovely, and Wang, 2004); or analysed the bilateral trade flows of 
merchandised goods with different pollution intensities in trading blocs (Kahn and Yoshino, 
2004). The majority of the existing empirical and theoretical studies of the pollution haven 
hypothesis highlight the lax environmental regulations of the foreign country as one of the main 
reasons of the debate. The numerous published works on the pollution haven hypothesis have not 
fully analysed and focused on the link between foreign direct investment (FDI) flow into energy 
intensive industries; location choices of energy intensive industries; and the low cost energy 
resource dependence of these industries. 
Therefore, this research paper intends to redefine the phenomenon of pollution haven 
hypothesis. One of the most controversial debates today is whether pollution-intensive industries 
search locations with lax environmental principles and turning these locations into pollution 
havens. 
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First of all, these industries are energy intensive and the production life-cycle of merchandised 
goods will become pollution intensive. Secondly, energy intensive industries may seek locations 
with cheap energy resources such as fossil fuels (e.g. coal). 
Thirdly, the majority of the emerging developing countries’ (e.g. China and India) energy supply 
is highly dependent on coal. Fourthly, signatory countries to the Kyoto Protocol argue that non- 
Annex I countries (e.g. China) do not have legally binding emissions cap under the Protocol thus 
these countries can increase their comparative advantage in the production of pollution intensive 
goods. This statement requires some corrections; as a result of the trade liberalisation and a sharp 
increase in the consumption/production and export/import ratios, Non-Annex I countries increase 
the production of high energy intensive goods because of the FDI inflow and that energy 
intensive industries may shift of their production facilities by increasing the capacity at a new site 
or by outsourcing their production stages to countries with low cost energy resources. Therefore, 
the emerging developing countries (e.g. China) are cheap energy havens and will become 
pollution havens at the end of the production life-cycle because of their abundance in coal; as a 
result of this their comparative advantage mainly lies in the cheap energy resource. The cheap 
energy haven countries are those developing states in which high energy intensive industries 
search locations with low cost of energy resources. 
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III. CHINA'S POLLUTION PROBLEMS 
One of the major global environmental issues of the 21st Century is the ever-increasing 
greenhouse gases content, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), in the atmosphere and its negative 
impact on the global economy and environment. According to the IPCC Fourth Assessment 
Report (AR4), the current concentration of atmospheric CO2 has been rising and exceeded its 
value since the pre-industrialised era (Solomon, Qin, Manning, Chen, Marquis, Averyt, Tignor, 
& Miller (2007). The current trend of atmospheric CO2 concentration shows a sharp increase 
from the pre-industrial level of 228ppm to 389.78 ppm in 2010 (Solomon et al., 2007; NOAA). 
This increase is mainly due to the overutilization of primary energy sources, as a consequence of 
this the Earth’s surface as a whole is warming up. IPPC AR4 report predicted that the likely range 
of global average atmospheric warming is 2.4-6.4°C and this will lead to more sever regional and 
global climate changes (Solomon, 2007) that impose major economic, social and developmental 
costs to the world economy. 
China is the most populous country on Earth and the second largest energy user. Thus the 
county’s environmental performance has become the focus of global attention. The rapid 
economic growth, industrialization, and urbanisation of China over the last thirty years has 
improved the people’s wellbeing, and lifted 400 million people out of poverty. As a result of this, 
resource utilisation and energy efficiency has greatly improved. Moreover, the ambient air 
concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and the level of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the 
atmosphere have decreased over the last 25 years (Nygard, J, 2007). China’s estimated real 
growth rate of GDP was 10.3 % in 2010 (CIA). At the same time, China is still faced with 
environmental challenges and the degradation of its environment. 
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Total fossil fuel energy consumption was 86.4% between 2006 and 2010 and it is less likely that 
there will be decrease over the year (The World Bank). According to the, International Energy 
Agency’s (Figure 1.), China’s demand for primary energy sources will increase by 75% between 
2008 and 2035. In addition to this, the primary energy sources will still be the main energy 
supply in global level in 2035 (The Economist, 2010). 
As China is heavily populated it suffers from not just the increased CO2 emissions but also from 
several other major environmental problems. These are the following: 
· About one-third of the country suffers from soil erosion (Pei, 2002); 
· Almost all of its wastewater (80%) is discharged untreated (Pei, 2002); 
· More than two-thirds of its lakes and about half of its rivers have been polluted (Pei, 2002); 
· At least six of the world’s worst polluted cities were located in China in 2007 
(Block et al., 2007); 
· Two-thirds of China’s 660 cities are surrounded by illegal rubbish dumps 
(Chan, 2005); 
· The Yellow River water quality does not meet with China’s water quality standard, the 
river is highly polluted and deadly for the Chinese civilisation (Pei, 2002); 
· Sixty percent of its potable water does not meet with the World Health Organisation’s 
(WHO) minimum acceptable standard (Pei, 2002); 
· The mortality rate of respiratory diseases is very high (Pei, 2002). 
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IV. ECONOMIC REFORM AND FDI 
Since Mao’s heavy industrial strategy, China has gone through a remarkable economic 
revolution. The rapid economic development of the country has significantly contributed to 
improving the people’s well-being, reducing poverty and increasing the life expectancy. 
However, China is still considered to be one of the low-income economies in the international 
arena even though its rising economic power. One of the most important challenges of the 21st 
century is facing U.S.A. and the whole world economy to get a better understanding of the 
reasons behind the Red Star’s rise as an economic superpower and a dominant political body 
(Bergsten, Gill, Lardy, & Mitchell, 2006). 
According to Bergsten et al. (2006), five factors have contributed to China’s rapid economic 
growth: increasing its comparative advantage in the production of goods and services therefore, 
attracting more market force; transition from a closed economy to an open one and encouraging 
foreign direct investment; better and more systematic allocation of labor force; and achieving an 
improved primary school education. Although this “complex”, “contradictory” and “confusing” 
country has achieved remarkable growth since the dead of Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976, there 
are several issues to be worried about of a rising China (Bergsten et al., 2006). Therefore, the 
section is organised around the following major components: the economic reform of the 
country; the linkage between international openness, trade and FDI; and China’s accession to the 
WTO. 
a. Background of Economic Reform 
China’s Great Leap Forward strategy had serious consequences on the country’s overall 
economic performance. As a result of the economic development that has slowed down, the 
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social welfare did not improve significantly and people were still living under the poverty line. 
One of the most significant problems of the adoption of heavy industry based strategy was that 
China did not specialise in its comparative advantage; the cheap labor endowment (Lin, Cai, & 
Li, 2003). In contrast, Japan and the four Little Dragons attained a fast pace economic and social 
development between 1965 and 1984 however all of these countries are influenced by the 
Confucius ideology; the philosophy emphasis commitment to work and thrift. From the economic 
point of view, the success of Japan and the four Little Dragons listed in their open market 
approach, less price manipulation, and more efficient factors endowment allocation. On the other 
hand, the Asian financial crisis in 1997 deeply affected the “East Asian Miracle” economies, and 
there were fears for a world economy meltdown (Lin et al., 2003). 
1. Reform of the micro-management institution 
It was not until the dead of Chairman Mao that China had gave up the leap-forward strategy and 
Deng Xiaoping broke with the traditional economic system and fundamentally reformed the 
China’s economic structure in 1978. The first important aspect of the reform was that firms and 
farmers were given more production quotas and more self-governance (Lin et al., 2003). 
Secondly during the reform period, there often were conflicts between the micro- (e.g. the 
household responsibility system and SOEs) and ‘macro-policy environment’. Institutional 
regression occurred a number of times, due to the inefficient resource allocation and continuous 
price manipulation. 
Therefore, the second step was to introduce a better resource allocation policy and macro 
environment strategy that helped to improve the sphere of micro management units (Lin et al., 
2003). The State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) reform started in 1979 and included three periods; 
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1979-1984, 1984-1986, and 1988-present. During the first phase, SOEs were guaranteed more 
power to achieve higher efficiency. Two important aspects of this reform were all SOEs expenses 
were paid back by the government and the profits earned by SOEs were rendered to the state 
(profit-retention). Problem solving strategy of the profit retention-system was done by 
introducing the profit-quota system. Under this program, some of the SOEs’ profit was shared 
between the government, and the remained share was utilised by SOEs or split up between SOEs 
and the state. Although this reform period had positive consequences it also had a short lived 
success which occurred from the undefined autonomy of SOEs, and SOEs misconducted the state 
plane and did not complete with the pre-setted requirements (Lin et al., 2003). 
The second phase of the reform focused on simplifying administrative control and 
decentralising authority of SOEs (Lin et al., 2003). The third phase of the SOEs reform aim was 
to improve the management mechanism of SOEs by adopting a management responsibility 
system. International trade reform took place in three stages between 1978 and 1991 to present. 
The aim of the first period (1978-1986) was to give greater foreign trade power of SOEs. As a 
result of this the government implemented the foreign-trade responsibility system. Moreover, 
under this phase a foreign exchange retention system was introduced that was managed under the 
central management (Lin et al., 2003). 
The second stage of the reform took place in 1987-1990, with the aim of encouraging the bloom 
of foreign-trade responsibility system. Under the third stage (1991-present) of the reform export 
subsidies were abolished and the ratio of foreign exchange retention was raised. The goal of 
foreign trade reform was to give support to export and gain foreign exchange for the import of 
capital intensive goods. 
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2. Reform of the banking system 
It is necessary to mention the monetary system reform, which started in 1984, in China in which 
the monopoly of The People’s Bank of China was restructured and become a new central bank 
(Cargill & Parker, 2001). The central government had established several other banks; the 
Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of 
China (ICBC). The People’s Bank of China was the core element of the mono banking system, 
and responsible of the nation money supply. Also, it managed business by providing commercial 
loans and insurance (Lin et al., 2003). 
The Bank of China was responsible for foreign exchange business and loans. The ICBC was self-governing 
bank from the Central Government and had its own business operation system in 
place. Additional to this, the China People’s Insurance Company was established with the aim of 
managing deposits, loans and oversees the account of industrial and commercial firms. 
Furthermore, the credit management-, interest rate management-, and credit system was reformed 
(Lin et al., 2003). 
In October, 1992 at the 14th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Deng 
Xiaoping has announced a new economic system, the “Socialist Market Economy”. This 
capitalist market economy approach resulted in the separation of the banks into commercial 
banks, and “policy banks” (Cargill & Parker, 2001). Parker also states that only three more 
national banks have been established since the reform erupted; Everbright Bank (1992), Huaxia 
Bank (1992), and Capital Iron and Steel. In 1995, Minsheng Bank was opened which is the only 
non-governmental owned bank in China, and the first bank that engaged the service of an 
internationally recognised accounting firm. 
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3. Success of the Economic Reform 
Since the economic liberalisation, China has seen increasingly rapid economic development that 
made the country the second largest economy and trading state in the world. During the post- 
Maoist market improvements, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has specialised in labor 
endowment in which the country is abundant, and has witnessed a sharp increase in international 
trade. As a result of the market orientated reform, the PRC became leader of foreign exchange 
reserve and gold (CIA-The World Factbook: Reserves of Foreign Exchange and Gold). 
According to Parker (2001), China’s banking reform has lead to a monetary system that exhibits 
similarities to the Japanese financial system that is the comparative-advantage-following strategy 
that could lead to serious problems in the long run. 
4. Problems with the Reform 
In the previous chapter the reasons for China’s economic reform and its success was discussed. 
The Chinese economy has been growing rapidly since the economic reform stared in 1979. 
Although China had given up Mao’s self-reliance policy and adopted a more market-driven 
reform regime, the economic system of China is still faces with some obstacles to provide 
sustainable economic growth. According to Bergsten et al. (2006), there are three major 
challenges facing China, to carry forward and finish with the reform of SEOs; to improve the 
capital allocation system; and to develop a better macro-policy environment that can tackle with 
the rent-seeking firms due to the dual price system and corruption. Lin et al. (2003) has 
highlighted other problems lying in front of China, for instance the ever increasing income 
inequity among urban and rural areas; and to meet with the demand for grain production. 
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Additional to this, there is one more significant issue relates to the fast pace economic 
development of China, that is its environmental degradation and to provide access to safe, 
reliable and sustainable energy supply for everybody. Another problem is China’s undervalued 
currency exchange rate that causes a huge trade deficit between USA and China (Lin et al., 
2003). 
Furthermore, the Chinese economists’ point of view is that the SOEs are in serious trouble. 
Parker (2001) stated that China took as an example the Japanese monetary regime and liberalised 
its post-Maoist economy. According to him, this system can only perform well in the short-run 
but will cause severe economic problems in the long-run. He takes the Asian financial crisis as an 
example to get a better understanding of the problems and consequences associated with the 
financial liberalisation (Cargill & Parker, 2001). 
b. The link between International Openness, Trade, and FDI 
Since the unification of the country, China was a strong state ruled by a single, robust individual 
and a strong central government. China is still a very contradictive state although the country has 
gone through a remarkable political, economic, social, and cultural revolution since the death 
of Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping the ‘paramount leader’ has give 
up with Mao’s Leap Forward Strategy and fundamentally modernized the country’s 
economy which leads to rapid growth and improved living standard. Deng Xiaoping was a 
committed political reformist who had a strong opinion to make the country economically 
and politically powerful in the international arena. Although China is undergoing a 
transition its communist political system is still highly bureaucratic and lacking some 
important aspects of democracy. 
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One of the most significant obstacles of political democratization of China is the role 
of factions in the politics (Shih, 2004). Shih highlighted the importance of the informal 
personal networks ties in the allotment of scare resources (loans and investment) in the 
Chinese political system. Therefore, pattern of factions have shaped many political and 
economical outcomes in China (Liberthal, 2004). Schurmann and Dittmer (2004) sated that 
factions are permanent and that their existence is dependent on constituencies for support; 
informal politics (Liberthal, 2004). 
Since 1978 to the present, China has experienced nationalism, dual economy, Open Door 
policy and become a member of the global economy (Faust et al., 1995). Deng knew that 
China’s future relied not only on the market based capitalism, but also on its current 
membership in the global economic system, for instance World Bank, International 
Monetary Fund (IMF), and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATTs) (Faust 
et al., 1995). As a result of his philosophy, he abolished Mao’s self-reliance approach in 
support of the Open Door policy in 1978 by which China opened up to the international 
trade and investment system. In 1980, the special economic zones (SEZs) were established 
as part of Den’s economic reform in Guandong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen 
(Faust et al., 1995). SEZs were designed after Taiwan’s SEZs, and their policy allowed 
foreign investors to experience special trading rights with less trading barriers and taxes 
(Faust et al., 1995). In June 1979, the government passed the Equity Joint Venture Law by 
which foreign direct investment (FDI) was allowed in China for the first time. This law was 
one of the major elements of the Open Door Policy, as a result equity joint ventures, 
cooperative, processing and assembly, and joint oil projects were created (Mackerras, 
1998). 
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c. China's Accession to the WTO 
World Trade Organisation was established in 1995, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs 
and Trade (GATT). The aim of WTO is reducing trade barriers among members, encouraging the 
liberalisation of international trade, and negotiating trade agreements. The member states of the 
organisation have a legally binding obligation to WTO agreements. In 1948, China was one of 
the founding bodies of GATT but withdrew its membership in 1950. It has taken more than 10 
years of complex negotiations to achieve WTO membership in December 2001, which was a 
milestone to China’s recent economic susses. In addition to this, the international trade pattern 
has changed drastically since China accession to WTO (Lin et al., 2003). According to the 
international trade theory, comparative advantage is the main reason for trade among countries. 
This means a country will specialise in a production of a good in which the country has 
comparative advantage. For instance, USA has comparative advantage in producing capital 
intensive goods because the country is abundant in capital versus China, which has comparative 
advantage in the production of manufacturing goods because the country is the paradise of labor 
endowment. 
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V. IS CHINA A POLLUTION HAVEN? 
Section III described China’s energy and environmental degradation in terms of air pollution, 
water pollution, and increased man-made CO2 emissions. This part of the paper will deal only 
with coal consumption related atmospheric air pollution (CO2) in China that is primarily linked 
with the pollution haven hypothesis. In addition to this, a quantitative analysis is provided for 
China’s increased coal demand and electricity generation since China become member of the 
WTO. 
a.How has reform affected pollution? 
China’s international openness and trade related increased production and consumption activities 
require the utilisation of more primary energy sources which severely affects the global 
environment in forms of air pollution and ever increasing CO2 emission. This environmental 
externality has negative affect on peoples well-being on national and international level, can 
contribute to market failure, alter global trade pattern and the country can loses its leading 
position as the largest exporter of the world trade. Figure 1. Show, China’ coal production 
between 1976 and 2010. Peak consumption and production Figure 2. with periods such on the 
1970s Economic Reform, China’s accession to the WTO (Dec 2001), and the late 2000s 
recession. Since the WTO membership, China consumed almost 2.5 times more coal in 2010 
(1713.5 Mtoe) than in 2001 (751.9 Mtoe). A similar pattern can be said about China’s coal 
production; China consumed 809.5 Mtoe coal in 2001 and 1800.4 Mtoe in 2010 which is a 
122.40% increase. Figure 3. represents China’s CO2 emission from fossil fuel utilisation between 
1976 and 2010. The peak emission periods can be divided into four stages from the late 1970s to 
the mid-1980s; from the mid-1980s to the millennium; from 2001 to the late world recession and 
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from 2007 to present. In the last 10 year, China’s CO2 emission increased by 123% or 4595.5 
million tonnes CO2 (BP Historical Data 1965-2010). 
b. Which industries are investing in China? 
Due to the lack of access to China Statistical Yearbooks on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) 
inflow by sectors, this section provides an overview of FDI inflow by origin and investment 
vehicle in China. 
Since the economic reform and adoption of open door policy, China has attracted large amount of 
foreign direct investment. Between 2011 and 2010, China’s utilized non-financial FDI amount 
was $706.4 billion dollars Table 1, of which US direct investment accounted for $30 billion 
dollar. In 2010, the non-financial FDI inflows increased by 2.1% compared to the previous year 
Table 1. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, non-financial overseas direct 
investment by Chinese investors accounted for $59 billion dollars which is a 36.3% increase 
compared to 2009 (NBS). As can be seen from Table 2., the majority of the contracted FDI 
projects (22,085) were done by wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs) in 2010 and its 
utilized FDI value was $81 billion dollars. The second most favoured non-financial FDI 
investment by vehicle type is equity joint ventures (Table 2.). The sharp difference between the 
numbers of contracted projects by the two vehicles types and operated by an overseas investors, 
and the investors receive all profits but take all the risk associated with operating the enterprise. 
In addition to this, the other difference which favours the WFOEs investment vehicle against EJV 
is the capital contribution to the establishment or investment of the enterprise (USCBC). In 
contrast establishment of EJVs, requires a Chinese and a foreign investor that collaborate by joint 
operation and ownership of a limited liability corporation. 
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Profits, loses and losses of the venture are shared between them according to their capital 
investment (The US-China Business Council). In 2008 and 2009 Asian investors led China’s FDI 
inflows (Table 3.). Leading investor is Hong Kong, followed by Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore. 
The largest non-financial FDI flows (245.7%) were achieved by Taiwan in 2009 compare to the 
previous year (Table 3.). USA ranked fifth according to its FDI investment in China, at nearly $4 
billion dollar with a 21.5% in 2009. 
As was mentioned before, this section cannot provide an updated and detailed sectoral 
distribution of FDI in China due to the access restriction to China’s Statistical Yearbooks. 
Therefore Table 5. is adopted from Broadman and Sun (1997) to give a general idea about the 
sectoral distribution of Chinese FDI. The authors highlighted the gap in the accurate quantitative 
analysis of FDI inflow to the country’s industrial sectors. As a consequence of this, further 
analysis will be required to get a richer picture about industrial distribution of FDI in China. 
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c. Is the FDI the cause of pollution? 
This section set out to investigate the relationship between China’ FDI policy and the country’s 
increasing CO2 emission that causes irreversible global environmental externalities. In addition to 
this, this section provides a new hypothesis for the relationship between FDI and pollution haven 
theory. 
Foreign Direct Investment policies in China 
One of the most significant elements of China’s economic boom has been the encouragement of 
foreign direct investment. Since the pre-Deng period, China adopted to a more open economy 
policy for foreign enterprises and has attracted an ever increasing FDI inflow. During this time, 
China’s FDI policy has undergone various changes. 
Between 1978 and 1984 (First phase of the economy reform), preferential government polices are 
permitted joint ventures using Chinese and foreign direct investment, and setting up Special 
Economic Zones (SEZs) and ‘Open Cities’ (Fung, Iizaka, & Tong, 2002.). In July 1979, The Law 
of the People’s Republic of China on Joint Venture using Chinese and Foreign Investment come 
into force, the Chinese Government legally allowed foreign investment in China. During the 
second phase of the economic reform (1984-1988), to open up the country to more foreign capital 
and technology, another fourteen major coastal cities opened to foreign trades and Hainan Island 
province become the fifth and largest SEZ in 1988 (Fung et al., 2002). 
In 1986, to improve the investment environment in China and attract further FDI inflow, equity 
joint ventures, contractual joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned enterprises were allowed. 
Moreover, the State Council’s provision for foreign investment specially focused on export 
orientated production-type enterprises, and technologically advanced enterprise. The Article 22 
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Provisions provided Enterprises with Foreign Investment with preferential tax policies, 
eliminated the barriers to import inputs used in production for or instance; raw materials, 
machinery and equipment. In addition, the State Council guaranteed priority access to water, 
electricity supply and transportation services and fast track access to RMB loans (NovexCn). The 
next milestone was in 1986 the adoption of The Law of The People's Republic of China on 
Enterprises Operated Exclusively with Foreign Capital which was amended by the 18th Session 
of the Standing Committee of the 9th National People's Congress on October 31, 2000 (Lehman, 
Lee, & Xu, 2000). The Article 3 provision states to boost the development of China’s economy 
the State Council allowed and encouraged foreign investors to establish export-oriented or utilize 
advance technology wholly foreign-owned enterprises. As can be seen from Table 2., the 
majority of the contracted FDI projects (22,085) were done by wholly foreign-owned enterprises 
(WFOEs) in 2010. 
In June 1995, The Provisional Guidelines for Foreign Investment Projects come into force and 
the State Council encouraged non-financial FDI project in the agricultural-, energy-, 
transportation-, telecommunications sectors, basis raw materials, and high technology industries. 
Moreover foreign invested projects, that would utilise the advantage of the rich natural resources 
(e.g. cheap electricity generation from coal) and the country’s abundance of labor endowment in 
the central and northwest regions were highly supported. Catalogue for The Guidance of Foreign 
Investment Industries provides the basis for the assessment and approval of encouraged, 
restricted, prohibited, and permitted non-financial FDI projects (Fung et al., 2002). Encouraged 
project for foreign investment are for instance in agriculture, coal and power industry. 
As was described in this section, one of the major reasons behind China’s blossoming economy is 
the FDI policy of the country which encourages the establishment of export (production) oriented 
foreign firms. It is necessary to mentioned that researchers are or were contentiously 
TIMEA GREGO 21
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
investigating the relationship between the pollution haven hypothesis and inward FDI inflow to 
manufacturing industries (Chen, & Démurger, 2002), the capital intensity of “dirty” sectors 
(Cole, & Elliott., 2005), relocation of pollution intensive industries to China (Dean, Lovely, & 
Wang, 2004.) but found little or no evidence to support this linkage for the pollution haven 
hypothesis. According to the theory, a country that has a less developed environmental 
regulations in force increase its comparative advantage in the production of merchandised goods, 
and services that are harmful for the environment and become the haven of the world pollutions. 
As was mentioned before, there is a fear that under trade liberalisation, the multinational 
companies will relocate to developing countries to utilise their weak environmental regulations. 
Winters and Wang (2001) noted that environmental cost associated with production activities 
account for less than 5% of sales for most industries. Therefore, this research paper argues that 
developed countries would off-shore their production facilities to developing countries with the 
aim of increasing their competitive advantage only because of the developed country’s laxer 
environmental regulations. 
This research paper presume that the FDI inflow is not the reason of the increased pollution 
concentration in China; the major reasons that supports of the pollution haven hypothesis are 
China’s FDI policy, which encourages export oriented foreign investment, China’s reliance on 
cheap electricity generation from coal, and abundance in labor. It has become clear, after 
conducting a broad ranging literature review, that currently there is no evidence for investigating 
the linkage between China’s exports focused FDI policy, cheap electricity production and the 
pollution haven hypothesis. 
TIMEA GREGO 22
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
d. How does WTO accession affect the protection of global environment? 
1. The link between environmental issues and the obligation of WTO rules 
Managing environmental degradation in the international trade arena is a cluster of complex 
relationships between global economy, environmental policies and sustainable utilisation of the 
environment resources which requires an interdisciplinary (political, economical and 
environmental) solution (Baumol et al., 1998). The aim of this section is to highlights the 
prospective barriers of implementing any global environmental policies concerned with the 
reduction of environmental degradation associated with international trade under current GATT 
regulations. Some of the main obstacles of the GATT for reducing global environmental 
degradation (GATT, 1998): 
Article I. General Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment requires contracting countries not to 
discriminate between their trading partners’ product originating in or destined for other member 
countries. 
Article II. Duties or charges imposed on imported goods require member states to set equalised 
fees or other charges, and ban tariffs above that level. 
Article III. National Treatment on Internal Taxation and Regulation prohibits the contracted 
member states to apply “internal taxes and other internal charges, and laws, regulations and 
requirements affecting the internal sale, offering for sale, purchase, transportation, distribution or 
use of products . . . to imported or domestic products so as to afford protection to domestic 
production”. 
TIMEA GREGO 23
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
Article III/2. Internal tax or other internal charges prohibits any contracting parties to apply any 
“internal taxes or other internal charges of any kind in excess of those applied, directly or 
indirectly, to like domestic products”. In addition to this “no contracting party shall otherwise 
apply internal taxes or other internal charges to imported or domestic products in a manner 
contrary” 
Article XI. General Elimination of Quantitative Restriction prohibits member states to impose 
quotas, on imports of products from other contracting members, except in special circumstances 
for instance food shortage. 
Article XX. General Expectations to the requirements. The two relevant expectation are Article 
XX (b) and (g) allow contracting parties to protect human, animal or plant life or health, or if the 
measures relate to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources. 
It is important to note that WTO agreements do not deal with environmental issues; multilateral 
environmental agreements are negotiated and agreed to mange international environmental 
problems (Feenstra et al., 2008). However, the major trading nations are members of the WTO 
and under current WTO/GATT rules any strict environmental standard can impose a trading 
barrier against the trading partners. There is little precedence for analysing the consequences of 
the relationship between China’s trade liberalisation and its impact on the global environment or 
investigating the bilateral free trade agreements between China and WTO members. 
TIMEA GREGO 24
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
VI. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 
To implement the most suitable economic instruments for reducing trade related carbon dioxide 
emission is a cluster of complex relationship between environmental policies, global economy 
and sustainable utilisation of the environment resources in international trade which requires an 
interdisciplinary (political, economical and environmental) solutions. China’s admission to the 
WTO makes the linkage between trade liberalisation and environmental degradation more 
complex. Section V/d. outlined the potential barriers against free trade related environmental 
protection actions applied by WTO member countries. Indeed, there is a need for economic 
instruments to eliminate the impacts of coal combustion on the global environmental. Therefore, 
further attempt is required to understand the empirical links between China’s FDI policy and 
environmental consequences of its export oriented international trade. Possible policy solution 
could be restriction of free trade and application of monitoring system on the way goods have 
been produced. 
VII. CONCLUSION 
The aim of the research paper was to investigate the linkage between China’s exports focused 
FDI policy and the pollution haven hypotheses. The research paper presumes that the ongoing 
international debate about pollution havens hypothesis could be solved by studying the link 
between foreign direct investment policy and export oriented production growth in China. If the 
linkage empirically can be verified, a new pollution haven hypothesis will be formed which states 
TIMEA GREGO 25
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
that developing countries (e.g. China and India) are export oriented and mainly utilising low cost 
energy source (e.g. coal) for the production and selling of goods and services so that these 
developing countries are the cheap energy and inexpensive labor haven states. Their comparative 
advantage built on energy generation from coal and large endowment of labor. 
TIMEA GREGO 26
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
APPENDICES 
TIMEA GREGO
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
FIGURE 1. WORLD PRIMARY ENERGY DEMAND 
(Adopted from: ‘Energy demand: Never Enough’. The Economist Nov 9th 2010, 14:10 by The 
Economist online 
viewed on 11th Dec 2011) 
TIMEA GREGO
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
TABLE 1. NON-FINANCIAL FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) INFLOWS, 2001-10 
YEAR 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 
Total FDI 
Number of 
projects 
26,140 34,171 41,081 43,664 44,001 41,485 37,871 27,514 23,435 27,406 
Growth 
(%) 
17.0d 30.7 20.2 6.3 0.8 -5.7 -8.7 -27.3 -14.8 16.9 
Utilized 
FDI ($ 
billion) 
46.9 52.7 53.5 60.6 60.3 69.5 74.8 92.4 90.0 105.7 
Growth 
(%) 
15.1 12.5 1.4 13.3 -0.5 4.5 18.6 23.6 -2.6 17.4 
US direct investment 
Number of 
projects 
2,594 3,363 4,060 3,925 3,741 3,205 2,627 1,772 NA NA 
Growth 
(%) 
-0.6 29.6 20.7 -3.3 -4.7 -14.3 -18.0 -32.5 NA NA 
Utilized 
FDI ($ 
billion) 
4.9 5.4 4.2 3.9 3.1 3.0 2.6 2.9 NA NA 
Growth 
(%) 
11.4 10.2 -22.2 -7.1 -20.5 -3.2 -12.8 12.5 NA NA 
US share 
of utilized 
investment 
(%) 
10.4 10.2 7.9 6.5 5.1 4.1 3.5 3.2 NA NA 
NA = not available 
Source: adopted from The US-China Business Council (viewed on 1st Jan 2012) 
TIMEA GREGO
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
TABLE 2. NON-FINANCIAL FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT BY VEHICLE TYPE 
Number of Projects Utilized FDI Value ($ billion) 
2009 2010 % Change 2009 2010 % Change 
Total FDI 23,435 27,406 16.9 91.8 108.8 18.6 
EJVs 4,283 4,970 16.0 17.3 22.5 30.2 
CJVs 390 300 -23.1 2.0 -1.6 -20.5 
WFOEs 18,741 22,085 17.8 68.7 81.0 17.9 
Foreign-invested 
shareholding 
21 51 142.9 2.0 0.6 -68.4 
ventures 
EJVs = equity joint ventures; CJVs = cooperative joint ventures; WFOEs = wholly foreign-owned 
enterprises. 
Source: adopted from The US-China Business Council 
https://www.uschina.org/statistics/fdi_cumulative.html (viewed on 1st Jan 2012) 
TABLE 3. TOP 10 ORIGINS OF NON-FINANCIAL FDI 
Country/Region 
of Origin 
Amount Invested 2008 
($ billion) 
Amount Invested 2009 
($ billion) 
Year-on-Year 
Growth** 
(%) 
Hong Kong 41.0 54.0 31.6 
Taiwan 1.9 6.6 245.7 
Japan 3.7 4.1 12.7 
Singapore 4.4 3.9 -12.4 
United States 2.9 3.6 21.5 
South Korea 3.1 2.7 -13.8 
United Kingdom 0.9 1.5 60.7 
Germany 0.9 1.2 36.3 
Macao 0.6 1.0 71.9 
Canada 0.5 1.0 76.5 
*Note: 2009 data includes investments sourced in these countries but made through 
Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, and Western Samoa. 
**Calculated by USCBC using unrounded numbers. 
Source: adopted from The US-China Business Council 
https://www.uschina.org/statistics/fdi_cumulative.html (viewed on 1st Jan 2012) 
TIMEA GREGO
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
TABLE 4. TOTAL VALUE OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN 
NON-FINANCIAL SECTORS AND THE GROWTH RATES IN 2010 
Sector Enterprises Increase over 
2009 (%) 
Actually Utilized 
Value 
100 million USD 
Increase over 
2009 (%) 
Total 27406 16.9 1057.4 17.4 
Of which: 
Manufacturing 11047 13.1 495.9 6.0 
Production and 
Supply of 
Electricity, Gas and 
210 -11.8 21.2 0.6 
Water 
Transport, Storage, 
Post and 
Telecommunicatio 
n Services 
396 0.3 22.4 -11.2 
Information 
Transmission, 
Computer Services 
and Software 
1046 -3.2 24.9 10.7 
Wholesales & 
Retail Trade 6786 33.1 66.0 22.4 
Real Estate 689 21.1 239.9 42.8 
Leasing and 
Business Services; 
Services to 
3418 19.3 71.3 17.3 
Households and 
Other Services 217 4.8 20.5 29.4 
Source: Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China on the 2010 National Economic and Social 
Development; National Bureau of Statistics of China February 28, 2011 (viewed on 1st Jan 2012) 
TIMEA GREGO
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
TABLE 5. SECTORAL DISTRIBUTION OF FDI IN 1993; CHINA 1984, 1988, AND 1993 
Source: adopted from (Broadman and Sun, 1997 p. 356). 
TIMEA GREGO
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
FIGURE 1. CHINA’S COAL CONSUMPTION (MILLION TONNES OIL EQUIVALENT) 
(1976-2010) 
China's Coal Consumption 
(1976-2010) 
1800,0 
1600,0 
1400,0 
1200,0 
1000,0 
800,0 
600,0 
400,0 
200,0 
0,0 
1976 
1977 
1978 
1979 
1980 
1981 
1982 
1983 
1984 
1985 
1986 
1987 
1988 
1989 
1990 
1991 
1992 
1993 
1994 
1995 
1996 
1997 
1998 
1999 
2000 
2001 
2002 
2003 
2004 
2005 
2006 
2007 
2008 
2009 
2010 
Years 
Coal Consumption (Mtoe) 
(Source: World Energy consumption Historical Data http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037185&contentId=7068613) 
1978 China’ market policy reform 
1986 Export oriented production 
December 2001 China’s WTO accession 
December 2007 Global recession has started 
TIMEA GREGO
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
FIGURE 2. CHINA’S COAL PRODUCTION (MILLION TONNES OIL EQUIVALENT) 
(1981-2010) 
2000,0 
1800,0 
1600,0 
1400,0 
1200,0 
1000,0 
800,0 
600,0 
400,0 
200,0 
(Source: World Energy consumption Historical Data http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037185&contentId=7068613) 
1978 China’ market policy reform 
1986 Export oriented production 
December 2001 China’s WTO accession 
December 2007 Global recession has started 
TIMEA GREGO 
China's coal production 
(1981-2010, Mtoe) 
0,0 
1981 
1983 
1985 
1987 
1989 
1991 
1993 
1995 
1997 
1999 
2001 
2003 
2005 
2007 
2009 
Years 
Coal Production (Mtoe)
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
FIGURE 3. CHINA’S CO2 EMISSION FROM PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCES 
(1976-2010) 
China's Carbon dioxide emission from primary energy sources (1976-2010) 
9000,0 
8000,0 
7000,0 
6000,0 
5000,0 
4000,0 
3000,0 
2000,0 
1000,0 
- 
1976 
1978 
1980 
1982 
1984 
1986 
1988 
1990 
1992 
1994 
1996 
1998 
2000 
2002 
2004 
2006 
2008 
2010 
Years 
(Million tonnes CO2) 
CO2 emission 
(Source: World Energy consumption Historical Data http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037185&contentId=7068613) 
1978 China’ market policy reform 
1986 Export oriented production 
December 2001 China’s WTO accession 
December 2007 Global recession has started 
TIMEA GREGO
GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 
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TIMEA GREGO

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China's FDI Policy and Pollution Haven Debate

  • 1. FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT POLICY AND POLLUTION HAVEN IN CHINA GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER ECON 662 TIMEA GREGO RENO, APRIL 2012
  • 2. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................2 Aim of the Investigation...............................................................................................................3 Explanation of the Research Approach........................................................................................3 II. THE POLLUTION HAVEN HYPOTHESIS..................................................................................................4 Theory of Pollution Havens..........................................................................................................4 International examples and evidence............................................................................................5 III. CHINA'S POLLUTION PROBLEMS..........................................................................................................7 IV. ECONOMIC REFORM AND FDI..............................................................................................................9 a. Background of Economic Reform............................................................................................9 1. Reform of the micro-management institution....................................................................10 2. Reform of the banking system............................................................................................12 3. Success of the Economic Reform.......................................................................................13 4. Problems with the Reform..................................................................................................13 b. The link between International Openness, Trade, and FDI....................................................14 c. China's Accession to the WTO...............................................................................................16 V. IS CHINA A POLLUTION HAVEN?.........................................................................................................17 a.How has reform affected pollution?........................................................................................17 b. Which industries are investing in China?...............................................................................18 c. Is the FDI the cause of pollution?...........................................................................................20 d. How does WTO accession affect the protection of global environment?..............................23 1. The link between environmental issues and the obligation of WTO rules.........................23 VI. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................25 VII. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................................25 TIMEA GREGO 1
  • 3. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER I. INTRODUCTION This research paper focuses on the linkage between China’s economic reforms, export oriented FDI policies, and its respond to China’s heavy coal dependence. Since Mao’s heavy industry strategy, China has experienced a remarkable economic development. As the consequence of the rapid industrialisation, its primary energy powered economy is booming in an extent that can be dangerous for the global economy and the unexpected environmental degradations that accompanied it. One of the core driving forces of the global economy is the international trade and relationship. The interaction of trade liberalisation and environmental protection are important aspects in the global economy. The global flow of merchandise goods through intra- and interregional trade was $ 12,178 billion although this accounts for a 12% decline in 2009; due to a 2.4% fall in the world GDP. Many factors have contributed to the sharp decline for instance the global economic crises and decline in consumer demand. The leading major economies in exported merchandised goods were China, Germany and the U.S.A. in 2009. Additional to this, China increased its world share in imported merchandised goods by 1.0% in 2009 compare to the previous year. As a consequence of the increase, China has become not only the world largest exporter but also the second largest importer. The U.S.A. kept its third position as an exporter of merchandised goods and leads the international trade as an importer (International Trade Statistic, WTO 2010). As can be seen from the above example, international trade is one of the driving engines of the global economic development. Therefore, it is very important to analyse the linkage between trade liberalisation and environmental degradations. TIMEA GREGO 2
  • 4. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER Aim of the Investigation It has become clear after an interdisciplinary literature review, that there is little precedence for investigating the linkage between China’s export focused FDI policy and the pollution haven hypotheses. Therefore, the immediate motivation for this research is to explore the impact of China FDI policy on the global environment, and how China has become the cheap energy haven of the World Trade. Explanation of the Research Approach The present study will analyse China’s open market approach by analysing the complexity of China’s FDI policy and its serious consequences on the global environment. In additional to this, the research paper will highlight a missing relationship of the pollution haven theory which sees the pollution haven perspective from a different view. TIMEA GREGO 3
  • 5. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER II. THE POLLUTION HAVEN HYPOTHESIS Theory of Pollution Havens One of the most significant debates of international relations, trade liberalisation and environmental protection is whether a country without a strict environmental protection program when other countries do it increases their comparative advantage in the production of merchandised goods and services that are harmful for the environment. Under trade liberalisation, the hypothesis predicts that there is precedence that multinational companies will relocate to developing countries to utilise their weak environmental regulations. According to Baumol and Oates (1998), developing countries, for instance China and India, do not limit environmental pollution to improve their economic status, they specialise in its comparative advantage and “will become the respiratory of the world’s dirty industries”. Research often draws the linkage between China as a pollution haven (e.g. the energy use related increased CO2 emission) and its unregulated environmental program as one of the main reason of the country’s rapid economic development. In addition to this, numerous works have been published on the connection between the foreign direct investment and the environmental degradation in China in regional dimension (Dean and Wang, 2004; MacDermott, 2009; Smarzynska and Wei-Jin, 2004). TIMEA GREGO 4
  • 6. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER International examples and evidence The initial aim of this section was to provide international examples and evidences for supporting the pollution haven hypothesis. However, after conducting an interdisciplinary literature review, it has become clear that researchers mainly took the economist perspective to analyse the credibility of the hypothesis, and failed to point out a very important factor behind the debate, is the cheap energy resource. There have been numerous empirical studies on the interaction between economic growth, environmental degradation and the existence or non-existence of pollution havens. Much of the work has, to date, focused on the differentiations in environmental regulations between countries and the possible relocations of firms; analysed the capital intensity of pollution intensive sectors (Cole and Elliott, 2005); the site choices of equity joint venture (EJV) project in China (Dean, Lovely, and Wang, 2004); or analysed the bilateral trade flows of merchandised goods with different pollution intensities in trading blocs (Kahn and Yoshino, 2004). The majority of the existing empirical and theoretical studies of the pollution haven hypothesis highlight the lax environmental regulations of the foreign country as one of the main reasons of the debate. The numerous published works on the pollution haven hypothesis have not fully analysed and focused on the link between foreign direct investment (FDI) flow into energy intensive industries; location choices of energy intensive industries; and the low cost energy resource dependence of these industries. Therefore, this research paper intends to redefine the phenomenon of pollution haven hypothesis. One of the most controversial debates today is whether pollution-intensive industries search locations with lax environmental principles and turning these locations into pollution havens. TIMEA GREGO 5
  • 7. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER First of all, these industries are energy intensive and the production life-cycle of merchandised goods will become pollution intensive. Secondly, energy intensive industries may seek locations with cheap energy resources such as fossil fuels (e.g. coal). Thirdly, the majority of the emerging developing countries’ (e.g. China and India) energy supply is highly dependent on coal. Fourthly, signatory countries to the Kyoto Protocol argue that non- Annex I countries (e.g. China) do not have legally binding emissions cap under the Protocol thus these countries can increase their comparative advantage in the production of pollution intensive goods. This statement requires some corrections; as a result of the trade liberalisation and a sharp increase in the consumption/production and export/import ratios, Non-Annex I countries increase the production of high energy intensive goods because of the FDI inflow and that energy intensive industries may shift of their production facilities by increasing the capacity at a new site or by outsourcing their production stages to countries with low cost energy resources. Therefore, the emerging developing countries (e.g. China) are cheap energy havens and will become pollution havens at the end of the production life-cycle because of their abundance in coal; as a result of this their comparative advantage mainly lies in the cheap energy resource. The cheap energy haven countries are those developing states in which high energy intensive industries search locations with low cost of energy resources. TIMEA GREGO 6
  • 8. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER III. CHINA'S POLLUTION PROBLEMS One of the major global environmental issues of the 21st Century is the ever-increasing greenhouse gases content, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), in the atmosphere and its negative impact on the global economy and environment. According to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), the current concentration of atmospheric CO2 has been rising and exceeded its value since the pre-industrialised era (Solomon, Qin, Manning, Chen, Marquis, Averyt, Tignor, & Miller (2007). The current trend of atmospheric CO2 concentration shows a sharp increase from the pre-industrial level of 228ppm to 389.78 ppm in 2010 (Solomon et al., 2007; NOAA). This increase is mainly due to the overutilization of primary energy sources, as a consequence of this the Earth’s surface as a whole is warming up. IPPC AR4 report predicted that the likely range of global average atmospheric warming is 2.4-6.4°C and this will lead to more sever regional and global climate changes (Solomon, 2007) that impose major economic, social and developmental costs to the world economy. China is the most populous country on Earth and the second largest energy user. Thus the county’s environmental performance has become the focus of global attention. The rapid economic growth, industrialization, and urbanisation of China over the last thirty years has improved the people’s wellbeing, and lifted 400 million people out of poverty. As a result of this, resource utilisation and energy efficiency has greatly improved. Moreover, the ambient air concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and the level of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the atmosphere have decreased over the last 25 years (Nygard, J, 2007). China’s estimated real growth rate of GDP was 10.3 % in 2010 (CIA). At the same time, China is still faced with environmental challenges and the degradation of its environment. TIMEA GREGO 7
  • 9. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER Total fossil fuel energy consumption was 86.4% between 2006 and 2010 and it is less likely that there will be decrease over the year (The World Bank). According to the, International Energy Agency’s (Figure 1.), China’s demand for primary energy sources will increase by 75% between 2008 and 2035. In addition to this, the primary energy sources will still be the main energy supply in global level in 2035 (The Economist, 2010). As China is heavily populated it suffers from not just the increased CO2 emissions but also from several other major environmental problems. These are the following: · About one-third of the country suffers from soil erosion (Pei, 2002); · Almost all of its wastewater (80%) is discharged untreated (Pei, 2002); · More than two-thirds of its lakes and about half of its rivers have been polluted (Pei, 2002); · At least six of the world’s worst polluted cities were located in China in 2007 (Block et al., 2007); · Two-thirds of China’s 660 cities are surrounded by illegal rubbish dumps (Chan, 2005); · The Yellow River water quality does not meet with China’s water quality standard, the river is highly polluted and deadly for the Chinese civilisation (Pei, 2002); · Sixty percent of its potable water does not meet with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) minimum acceptable standard (Pei, 2002); · The mortality rate of respiratory diseases is very high (Pei, 2002). TIMEA GREGO 8
  • 10. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER IV. ECONOMIC REFORM AND FDI Since Mao’s heavy industrial strategy, China has gone through a remarkable economic revolution. The rapid economic development of the country has significantly contributed to improving the people’s well-being, reducing poverty and increasing the life expectancy. However, China is still considered to be one of the low-income economies in the international arena even though its rising economic power. One of the most important challenges of the 21st century is facing U.S.A. and the whole world economy to get a better understanding of the reasons behind the Red Star’s rise as an economic superpower and a dominant political body (Bergsten, Gill, Lardy, & Mitchell, 2006). According to Bergsten et al. (2006), five factors have contributed to China’s rapid economic growth: increasing its comparative advantage in the production of goods and services therefore, attracting more market force; transition from a closed economy to an open one and encouraging foreign direct investment; better and more systematic allocation of labor force; and achieving an improved primary school education. Although this “complex”, “contradictory” and “confusing” country has achieved remarkable growth since the dead of Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976, there are several issues to be worried about of a rising China (Bergsten et al., 2006). Therefore, the section is organised around the following major components: the economic reform of the country; the linkage between international openness, trade and FDI; and China’s accession to the WTO. a. Background of Economic Reform China’s Great Leap Forward strategy had serious consequences on the country’s overall economic performance. As a result of the economic development that has slowed down, the TIMEA GREGO 9
  • 11. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER social welfare did not improve significantly and people were still living under the poverty line. One of the most significant problems of the adoption of heavy industry based strategy was that China did not specialise in its comparative advantage; the cheap labor endowment (Lin, Cai, & Li, 2003). In contrast, Japan and the four Little Dragons attained a fast pace economic and social development between 1965 and 1984 however all of these countries are influenced by the Confucius ideology; the philosophy emphasis commitment to work and thrift. From the economic point of view, the success of Japan and the four Little Dragons listed in their open market approach, less price manipulation, and more efficient factors endowment allocation. On the other hand, the Asian financial crisis in 1997 deeply affected the “East Asian Miracle” economies, and there were fears for a world economy meltdown (Lin et al., 2003). 1. Reform of the micro-management institution It was not until the dead of Chairman Mao that China had gave up the leap-forward strategy and Deng Xiaoping broke with the traditional economic system and fundamentally reformed the China’s economic structure in 1978. The first important aspect of the reform was that firms and farmers were given more production quotas and more self-governance (Lin et al., 2003). Secondly during the reform period, there often were conflicts between the micro- (e.g. the household responsibility system and SOEs) and ‘macro-policy environment’. Institutional regression occurred a number of times, due to the inefficient resource allocation and continuous price manipulation. Therefore, the second step was to introduce a better resource allocation policy and macro environment strategy that helped to improve the sphere of micro management units (Lin et al., 2003). The State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) reform started in 1979 and included three periods; TIMEA GREGO 10
  • 12. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 1979-1984, 1984-1986, and 1988-present. During the first phase, SOEs were guaranteed more power to achieve higher efficiency. Two important aspects of this reform were all SOEs expenses were paid back by the government and the profits earned by SOEs were rendered to the state (profit-retention). Problem solving strategy of the profit retention-system was done by introducing the profit-quota system. Under this program, some of the SOEs’ profit was shared between the government, and the remained share was utilised by SOEs or split up between SOEs and the state. Although this reform period had positive consequences it also had a short lived success which occurred from the undefined autonomy of SOEs, and SOEs misconducted the state plane and did not complete with the pre-setted requirements (Lin et al., 2003). The second phase of the reform focused on simplifying administrative control and decentralising authority of SOEs (Lin et al., 2003). The third phase of the SOEs reform aim was to improve the management mechanism of SOEs by adopting a management responsibility system. International trade reform took place in three stages between 1978 and 1991 to present. The aim of the first period (1978-1986) was to give greater foreign trade power of SOEs. As a result of this the government implemented the foreign-trade responsibility system. Moreover, under this phase a foreign exchange retention system was introduced that was managed under the central management (Lin et al., 2003). The second stage of the reform took place in 1987-1990, with the aim of encouraging the bloom of foreign-trade responsibility system. Under the third stage (1991-present) of the reform export subsidies were abolished and the ratio of foreign exchange retention was raised. The goal of foreign trade reform was to give support to export and gain foreign exchange for the import of capital intensive goods. TIMEA GREGO 11
  • 13. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 2. Reform of the banking system It is necessary to mention the monetary system reform, which started in 1984, in China in which the monopoly of The People’s Bank of China was restructured and become a new central bank (Cargill & Parker, 2001). The central government had established several other banks; the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). The People’s Bank of China was the core element of the mono banking system, and responsible of the nation money supply. Also, it managed business by providing commercial loans and insurance (Lin et al., 2003). The Bank of China was responsible for foreign exchange business and loans. The ICBC was self-governing bank from the Central Government and had its own business operation system in place. Additional to this, the China People’s Insurance Company was established with the aim of managing deposits, loans and oversees the account of industrial and commercial firms. Furthermore, the credit management-, interest rate management-, and credit system was reformed (Lin et al., 2003). In October, 1992 at the 14th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Deng Xiaoping has announced a new economic system, the “Socialist Market Economy”. This capitalist market economy approach resulted in the separation of the banks into commercial banks, and “policy banks” (Cargill & Parker, 2001). Parker also states that only three more national banks have been established since the reform erupted; Everbright Bank (1992), Huaxia Bank (1992), and Capital Iron and Steel. In 1995, Minsheng Bank was opened which is the only non-governmental owned bank in China, and the first bank that engaged the service of an internationally recognised accounting firm. TIMEA GREGO 12
  • 14. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER 3. Success of the Economic Reform Since the economic liberalisation, China has seen increasingly rapid economic development that made the country the second largest economy and trading state in the world. During the post- Maoist market improvements, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has specialised in labor endowment in which the country is abundant, and has witnessed a sharp increase in international trade. As a result of the market orientated reform, the PRC became leader of foreign exchange reserve and gold (CIA-The World Factbook: Reserves of Foreign Exchange and Gold). According to Parker (2001), China’s banking reform has lead to a monetary system that exhibits similarities to the Japanese financial system that is the comparative-advantage-following strategy that could lead to serious problems in the long run. 4. Problems with the Reform In the previous chapter the reasons for China’s economic reform and its success was discussed. The Chinese economy has been growing rapidly since the economic reform stared in 1979. Although China had given up Mao’s self-reliance policy and adopted a more market-driven reform regime, the economic system of China is still faces with some obstacles to provide sustainable economic growth. According to Bergsten et al. (2006), there are three major challenges facing China, to carry forward and finish with the reform of SEOs; to improve the capital allocation system; and to develop a better macro-policy environment that can tackle with the rent-seeking firms due to the dual price system and corruption. Lin et al. (2003) has highlighted other problems lying in front of China, for instance the ever increasing income inequity among urban and rural areas; and to meet with the demand for grain production. TIMEA GREGO 13
  • 15. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER Additional to this, there is one more significant issue relates to the fast pace economic development of China, that is its environmental degradation and to provide access to safe, reliable and sustainable energy supply for everybody. Another problem is China’s undervalued currency exchange rate that causes a huge trade deficit between USA and China (Lin et al., 2003). Furthermore, the Chinese economists’ point of view is that the SOEs are in serious trouble. Parker (2001) stated that China took as an example the Japanese monetary regime and liberalised its post-Maoist economy. According to him, this system can only perform well in the short-run but will cause severe economic problems in the long-run. He takes the Asian financial crisis as an example to get a better understanding of the problems and consequences associated with the financial liberalisation (Cargill & Parker, 2001). b. The link between International Openness, Trade, and FDI Since the unification of the country, China was a strong state ruled by a single, robust individual and a strong central government. China is still a very contradictive state although the country has gone through a remarkable political, economic, social, and cultural revolution since the death of Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping the ‘paramount leader’ has give up with Mao’s Leap Forward Strategy and fundamentally modernized the country’s economy which leads to rapid growth and improved living standard. Deng Xiaoping was a committed political reformist who had a strong opinion to make the country economically and politically powerful in the international arena. Although China is undergoing a transition its communist political system is still highly bureaucratic and lacking some important aspects of democracy. TIMEA GREGO 14
  • 16. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER One of the most significant obstacles of political democratization of China is the role of factions in the politics (Shih, 2004). Shih highlighted the importance of the informal personal networks ties in the allotment of scare resources (loans and investment) in the Chinese political system. Therefore, pattern of factions have shaped many political and economical outcomes in China (Liberthal, 2004). Schurmann and Dittmer (2004) sated that factions are permanent and that their existence is dependent on constituencies for support; informal politics (Liberthal, 2004). Since 1978 to the present, China has experienced nationalism, dual economy, Open Door policy and become a member of the global economy (Faust et al., 1995). Deng knew that China’s future relied not only on the market based capitalism, but also on its current membership in the global economic system, for instance World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATTs) (Faust et al., 1995). As a result of his philosophy, he abolished Mao’s self-reliance approach in support of the Open Door policy in 1978 by which China opened up to the international trade and investment system. In 1980, the special economic zones (SEZs) were established as part of Den’s economic reform in Guandong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen (Faust et al., 1995). SEZs were designed after Taiwan’s SEZs, and their policy allowed foreign investors to experience special trading rights with less trading barriers and taxes (Faust et al., 1995). In June 1979, the government passed the Equity Joint Venture Law by which foreign direct investment (FDI) was allowed in China for the first time. This law was one of the major elements of the Open Door Policy, as a result equity joint ventures, cooperative, processing and assembly, and joint oil projects were created (Mackerras, 1998). TIMEA GREGO 15
  • 17. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER c. China's Accession to the WTO World Trade Organisation was established in 1995, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The aim of WTO is reducing trade barriers among members, encouraging the liberalisation of international trade, and negotiating trade agreements. The member states of the organisation have a legally binding obligation to WTO agreements. In 1948, China was one of the founding bodies of GATT but withdrew its membership in 1950. It has taken more than 10 years of complex negotiations to achieve WTO membership in December 2001, which was a milestone to China’s recent economic susses. In addition to this, the international trade pattern has changed drastically since China accession to WTO (Lin et al., 2003). According to the international trade theory, comparative advantage is the main reason for trade among countries. This means a country will specialise in a production of a good in which the country has comparative advantage. For instance, USA has comparative advantage in producing capital intensive goods because the country is abundant in capital versus China, which has comparative advantage in the production of manufacturing goods because the country is the paradise of labor endowment. TIMEA GREGO 16
  • 18. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER V. IS CHINA A POLLUTION HAVEN? Section III described China’s energy and environmental degradation in terms of air pollution, water pollution, and increased man-made CO2 emissions. This part of the paper will deal only with coal consumption related atmospheric air pollution (CO2) in China that is primarily linked with the pollution haven hypothesis. In addition to this, a quantitative analysis is provided for China’s increased coal demand and electricity generation since China become member of the WTO. a.How has reform affected pollution? China’s international openness and trade related increased production and consumption activities require the utilisation of more primary energy sources which severely affects the global environment in forms of air pollution and ever increasing CO2 emission. This environmental externality has negative affect on peoples well-being on national and international level, can contribute to market failure, alter global trade pattern and the country can loses its leading position as the largest exporter of the world trade. Figure 1. Show, China’ coal production between 1976 and 2010. Peak consumption and production Figure 2. with periods such on the 1970s Economic Reform, China’s accession to the WTO (Dec 2001), and the late 2000s recession. Since the WTO membership, China consumed almost 2.5 times more coal in 2010 (1713.5 Mtoe) than in 2001 (751.9 Mtoe). A similar pattern can be said about China’s coal production; China consumed 809.5 Mtoe coal in 2001 and 1800.4 Mtoe in 2010 which is a 122.40% increase. Figure 3. represents China’s CO2 emission from fossil fuel utilisation between 1976 and 2010. The peak emission periods can be divided into four stages from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s; from the mid-1980s to the millennium; from 2001 to the late world recession and TIMEA GREGO 17
  • 19. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER from 2007 to present. In the last 10 year, China’s CO2 emission increased by 123% or 4595.5 million tonnes CO2 (BP Historical Data 1965-2010). b. Which industries are investing in China? Due to the lack of access to China Statistical Yearbooks on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow by sectors, this section provides an overview of FDI inflow by origin and investment vehicle in China. Since the economic reform and adoption of open door policy, China has attracted large amount of foreign direct investment. Between 2011 and 2010, China’s utilized non-financial FDI amount was $706.4 billion dollars Table 1, of which US direct investment accounted for $30 billion dollar. In 2010, the non-financial FDI inflows increased by 2.1% compared to the previous year Table 1. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, non-financial overseas direct investment by Chinese investors accounted for $59 billion dollars which is a 36.3% increase compared to 2009 (NBS). As can be seen from Table 2., the majority of the contracted FDI projects (22,085) were done by wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs) in 2010 and its utilized FDI value was $81 billion dollars. The second most favoured non-financial FDI investment by vehicle type is equity joint ventures (Table 2.). The sharp difference between the numbers of contracted projects by the two vehicles types and operated by an overseas investors, and the investors receive all profits but take all the risk associated with operating the enterprise. In addition to this, the other difference which favours the WFOEs investment vehicle against EJV is the capital contribution to the establishment or investment of the enterprise (USCBC). In contrast establishment of EJVs, requires a Chinese and a foreign investor that collaborate by joint operation and ownership of a limited liability corporation. TIMEA GREGO 18
  • 20. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER Profits, loses and losses of the venture are shared between them according to their capital investment (The US-China Business Council). In 2008 and 2009 Asian investors led China’s FDI inflows (Table 3.). Leading investor is Hong Kong, followed by Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore. The largest non-financial FDI flows (245.7%) were achieved by Taiwan in 2009 compare to the previous year (Table 3.). USA ranked fifth according to its FDI investment in China, at nearly $4 billion dollar with a 21.5% in 2009. As was mentioned before, this section cannot provide an updated and detailed sectoral distribution of FDI in China due to the access restriction to China’s Statistical Yearbooks. Therefore Table 5. is adopted from Broadman and Sun (1997) to give a general idea about the sectoral distribution of Chinese FDI. The authors highlighted the gap in the accurate quantitative analysis of FDI inflow to the country’s industrial sectors. As a consequence of this, further analysis will be required to get a richer picture about industrial distribution of FDI in China. TIMEA GREGO 19
  • 21. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER c. Is the FDI the cause of pollution? This section set out to investigate the relationship between China’ FDI policy and the country’s increasing CO2 emission that causes irreversible global environmental externalities. In addition to this, this section provides a new hypothesis for the relationship between FDI and pollution haven theory. Foreign Direct Investment policies in China One of the most significant elements of China’s economic boom has been the encouragement of foreign direct investment. Since the pre-Deng period, China adopted to a more open economy policy for foreign enterprises and has attracted an ever increasing FDI inflow. During this time, China’s FDI policy has undergone various changes. Between 1978 and 1984 (First phase of the economy reform), preferential government polices are permitted joint ventures using Chinese and foreign direct investment, and setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and ‘Open Cities’ (Fung, Iizaka, & Tong, 2002.). In July 1979, The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Joint Venture using Chinese and Foreign Investment come into force, the Chinese Government legally allowed foreign investment in China. During the second phase of the economic reform (1984-1988), to open up the country to more foreign capital and technology, another fourteen major coastal cities opened to foreign trades and Hainan Island province become the fifth and largest SEZ in 1988 (Fung et al., 2002). In 1986, to improve the investment environment in China and attract further FDI inflow, equity joint ventures, contractual joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned enterprises were allowed. Moreover, the State Council’s provision for foreign investment specially focused on export orientated production-type enterprises, and technologically advanced enterprise. The Article 22 TIMEA GREGO 20
  • 22. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER Provisions provided Enterprises with Foreign Investment with preferential tax policies, eliminated the barriers to import inputs used in production for or instance; raw materials, machinery and equipment. In addition, the State Council guaranteed priority access to water, electricity supply and transportation services and fast track access to RMB loans (NovexCn). The next milestone was in 1986 the adoption of The Law of The People's Republic of China on Enterprises Operated Exclusively with Foreign Capital which was amended by the 18th Session of the Standing Committee of the 9th National People's Congress on October 31, 2000 (Lehman, Lee, & Xu, 2000). The Article 3 provision states to boost the development of China’s economy the State Council allowed and encouraged foreign investors to establish export-oriented or utilize advance technology wholly foreign-owned enterprises. As can be seen from Table 2., the majority of the contracted FDI projects (22,085) were done by wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs) in 2010. In June 1995, The Provisional Guidelines for Foreign Investment Projects come into force and the State Council encouraged non-financial FDI project in the agricultural-, energy-, transportation-, telecommunications sectors, basis raw materials, and high technology industries. Moreover foreign invested projects, that would utilise the advantage of the rich natural resources (e.g. cheap electricity generation from coal) and the country’s abundance of labor endowment in the central and northwest regions were highly supported. Catalogue for The Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries provides the basis for the assessment and approval of encouraged, restricted, prohibited, and permitted non-financial FDI projects (Fung et al., 2002). Encouraged project for foreign investment are for instance in agriculture, coal and power industry. As was described in this section, one of the major reasons behind China’s blossoming economy is the FDI policy of the country which encourages the establishment of export (production) oriented foreign firms. It is necessary to mentioned that researchers are or were contentiously TIMEA GREGO 21
  • 23. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER investigating the relationship between the pollution haven hypothesis and inward FDI inflow to manufacturing industries (Chen, & Démurger, 2002), the capital intensity of “dirty” sectors (Cole, & Elliott., 2005), relocation of pollution intensive industries to China (Dean, Lovely, & Wang, 2004.) but found little or no evidence to support this linkage for the pollution haven hypothesis. According to the theory, a country that has a less developed environmental regulations in force increase its comparative advantage in the production of merchandised goods, and services that are harmful for the environment and become the haven of the world pollutions. As was mentioned before, there is a fear that under trade liberalisation, the multinational companies will relocate to developing countries to utilise their weak environmental regulations. Winters and Wang (2001) noted that environmental cost associated with production activities account for less than 5% of sales for most industries. Therefore, this research paper argues that developed countries would off-shore their production facilities to developing countries with the aim of increasing their competitive advantage only because of the developed country’s laxer environmental regulations. This research paper presume that the FDI inflow is not the reason of the increased pollution concentration in China; the major reasons that supports of the pollution haven hypothesis are China’s FDI policy, which encourages export oriented foreign investment, China’s reliance on cheap electricity generation from coal, and abundance in labor. It has become clear, after conducting a broad ranging literature review, that currently there is no evidence for investigating the linkage between China’s exports focused FDI policy, cheap electricity production and the pollution haven hypothesis. TIMEA GREGO 22
  • 24. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER d. How does WTO accession affect the protection of global environment? 1. The link between environmental issues and the obligation of WTO rules Managing environmental degradation in the international trade arena is a cluster of complex relationships between global economy, environmental policies and sustainable utilisation of the environment resources which requires an interdisciplinary (political, economical and environmental) solution (Baumol et al., 1998). The aim of this section is to highlights the prospective barriers of implementing any global environmental policies concerned with the reduction of environmental degradation associated with international trade under current GATT regulations. Some of the main obstacles of the GATT for reducing global environmental degradation (GATT, 1998): Article I. General Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment requires contracting countries not to discriminate between their trading partners’ product originating in or destined for other member countries. Article II. Duties or charges imposed on imported goods require member states to set equalised fees or other charges, and ban tariffs above that level. Article III. National Treatment on Internal Taxation and Regulation prohibits the contracted member states to apply “internal taxes and other internal charges, and laws, regulations and requirements affecting the internal sale, offering for sale, purchase, transportation, distribution or use of products . . . to imported or domestic products so as to afford protection to domestic production”. TIMEA GREGO 23
  • 25. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER Article III/2. Internal tax or other internal charges prohibits any contracting parties to apply any “internal taxes or other internal charges of any kind in excess of those applied, directly or indirectly, to like domestic products”. In addition to this “no contracting party shall otherwise apply internal taxes or other internal charges to imported or domestic products in a manner contrary” Article XI. General Elimination of Quantitative Restriction prohibits member states to impose quotas, on imports of products from other contracting members, except in special circumstances for instance food shortage. Article XX. General Expectations to the requirements. The two relevant expectation are Article XX (b) and (g) allow contracting parties to protect human, animal or plant life or health, or if the measures relate to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources. It is important to note that WTO agreements do not deal with environmental issues; multilateral environmental agreements are negotiated and agreed to mange international environmental problems (Feenstra et al., 2008). However, the major trading nations are members of the WTO and under current WTO/GATT rules any strict environmental standard can impose a trading barrier against the trading partners. There is little precedence for analysing the consequences of the relationship between China’s trade liberalisation and its impact on the global environment or investigating the bilateral free trade agreements between China and WTO members. TIMEA GREGO 24
  • 26. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER VI. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS To implement the most suitable economic instruments for reducing trade related carbon dioxide emission is a cluster of complex relationship between environmental policies, global economy and sustainable utilisation of the environment resources in international trade which requires an interdisciplinary (political, economical and environmental) solutions. China’s admission to the WTO makes the linkage between trade liberalisation and environmental degradation more complex. Section V/d. outlined the potential barriers against free trade related environmental protection actions applied by WTO member countries. Indeed, there is a need for economic instruments to eliminate the impacts of coal combustion on the global environmental. Therefore, further attempt is required to understand the empirical links between China’s FDI policy and environmental consequences of its export oriented international trade. Possible policy solution could be restriction of free trade and application of monitoring system on the way goods have been produced. VII. CONCLUSION The aim of the research paper was to investigate the linkage between China’s exports focused FDI policy and the pollution haven hypotheses. The research paper presumes that the ongoing international debate about pollution havens hypothesis could be solved by studying the link between foreign direct investment policy and export oriented production growth in China. If the linkage empirically can be verified, a new pollution haven hypothesis will be formed which states TIMEA GREGO 25
  • 27. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER that developing countries (e.g. China and India) are export oriented and mainly utilising low cost energy source (e.g. coal) for the production and selling of goods and services so that these developing countries are the cheap energy and inexpensive labor haven states. Their comparative advantage built on energy generation from coal and large endowment of labor. TIMEA GREGO 26
  • 28. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER APPENDICES TIMEA GREGO
  • 29. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER FIGURE 1. WORLD PRIMARY ENERGY DEMAND (Adopted from: ‘Energy demand: Never Enough’. The Economist Nov 9th 2010, 14:10 by The Economist online viewed on 11th Dec 2011) TIMEA GREGO
  • 30. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER TABLE 1. NON-FINANCIAL FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) INFLOWS, 2001-10 YEAR 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total FDI Number of projects 26,140 34,171 41,081 43,664 44,001 41,485 37,871 27,514 23,435 27,406 Growth (%) 17.0d 30.7 20.2 6.3 0.8 -5.7 -8.7 -27.3 -14.8 16.9 Utilized FDI ($ billion) 46.9 52.7 53.5 60.6 60.3 69.5 74.8 92.4 90.0 105.7 Growth (%) 15.1 12.5 1.4 13.3 -0.5 4.5 18.6 23.6 -2.6 17.4 US direct investment Number of projects 2,594 3,363 4,060 3,925 3,741 3,205 2,627 1,772 NA NA Growth (%) -0.6 29.6 20.7 -3.3 -4.7 -14.3 -18.0 -32.5 NA NA Utilized FDI ($ billion) 4.9 5.4 4.2 3.9 3.1 3.0 2.6 2.9 NA NA Growth (%) 11.4 10.2 -22.2 -7.1 -20.5 -3.2 -12.8 12.5 NA NA US share of utilized investment (%) 10.4 10.2 7.9 6.5 5.1 4.1 3.5 3.2 NA NA NA = not available Source: adopted from The US-China Business Council (viewed on 1st Jan 2012) TIMEA GREGO
  • 31. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER TABLE 2. NON-FINANCIAL FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT BY VEHICLE TYPE Number of Projects Utilized FDI Value ($ billion) 2009 2010 % Change 2009 2010 % Change Total FDI 23,435 27,406 16.9 91.8 108.8 18.6 EJVs 4,283 4,970 16.0 17.3 22.5 30.2 CJVs 390 300 -23.1 2.0 -1.6 -20.5 WFOEs 18,741 22,085 17.8 68.7 81.0 17.9 Foreign-invested shareholding 21 51 142.9 2.0 0.6 -68.4 ventures EJVs = equity joint ventures; CJVs = cooperative joint ventures; WFOEs = wholly foreign-owned enterprises. Source: adopted from The US-China Business Council https://www.uschina.org/statistics/fdi_cumulative.html (viewed on 1st Jan 2012) TABLE 3. TOP 10 ORIGINS OF NON-FINANCIAL FDI Country/Region of Origin Amount Invested 2008 ($ billion) Amount Invested 2009 ($ billion) Year-on-Year Growth** (%) Hong Kong 41.0 54.0 31.6 Taiwan 1.9 6.6 245.7 Japan 3.7 4.1 12.7 Singapore 4.4 3.9 -12.4 United States 2.9 3.6 21.5 South Korea 3.1 2.7 -13.8 United Kingdom 0.9 1.5 60.7 Germany 0.9 1.2 36.3 Macao 0.6 1.0 71.9 Canada 0.5 1.0 76.5 *Note: 2009 data includes investments sourced in these countries but made through Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, and Western Samoa. **Calculated by USCBC using unrounded numbers. Source: adopted from The US-China Business Council https://www.uschina.org/statistics/fdi_cumulative.html (viewed on 1st Jan 2012) TIMEA GREGO
  • 32. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER TABLE 4. TOTAL VALUE OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN NON-FINANCIAL SECTORS AND THE GROWTH RATES IN 2010 Sector Enterprises Increase over 2009 (%) Actually Utilized Value 100 million USD Increase over 2009 (%) Total 27406 16.9 1057.4 17.4 Of which: Manufacturing 11047 13.1 495.9 6.0 Production and Supply of Electricity, Gas and 210 -11.8 21.2 0.6 Water Transport, Storage, Post and Telecommunicatio n Services 396 0.3 22.4 -11.2 Information Transmission, Computer Services and Software 1046 -3.2 24.9 10.7 Wholesales & Retail Trade 6786 33.1 66.0 22.4 Real Estate 689 21.1 239.9 42.8 Leasing and Business Services; Services to 3418 19.3 71.3 17.3 Households and Other Services 217 4.8 20.5 29.4 Source: Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China on the 2010 National Economic and Social Development; National Bureau of Statistics of China February 28, 2011 (viewed on 1st Jan 2012) TIMEA GREGO
  • 33. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER TABLE 5. SECTORAL DISTRIBUTION OF FDI IN 1993; CHINA 1984, 1988, AND 1993 Source: adopted from (Broadman and Sun, 1997 p. 356). TIMEA GREGO
  • 34. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER FIGURE 1. CHINA’S COAL CONSUMPTION (MILLION TONNES OIL EQUIVALENT) (1976-2010) China's Coal Consumption (1976-2010) 1800,0 1600,0 1400,0 1200,0 1000,0 800,0 600,0 400,0 200,0 0,0 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Years Coal Consumption (Mtoe) (Source: World Energy consumption Historical Data http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037185&contentId=7068613) 1978 China’ market policy reform 1986 Export oriented production December 2001 China’s WTO accession December 2007 Global recession has started TIMEA GREGO
  • 35. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER FIGURE 2. CHINA’S COAL PRODUCTION (MILLION TONNES OIL EQUIVALENT) (1981-2010) 2000,0 1800,0 1600,0 1400,0 1200,0 1000,0 800,0 600,0 400,0 200,0 (Source: World Energy consumption Historical Data http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037185&contentId=7068613) 1978 China’ market policy reform 1986 Export oriented production December 2001 China’s WTO accession December 2007 Global recession has started TIMEA GREGO China's coal production (1981-2010, Mtoe) 0,0 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 Years Coal Production (Mtoe)
  • 36. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER FIGURE 3. CHINA’S CO2 EMISSION FROM PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCES (1976-2010) China's Carbon dioxide emission from primary energy sources (1976-2010) 9000,0 8000,0 7000,0 6000,0 5000,0 4000,0 3000,0 2000,0 1000,0 - 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 Years (Million tonnes CO2) CO2 emission (Source: World Energy consumption Historical Data http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037185&contentId=7068613) 1978 China’ market policy reform 1986 Export oriented production December 2001 China’s WTO accession December 2007 Global recession has started TIMEA GREGO
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  • 38. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER pp. 530–548, Dean, J, M. Lovely, M. E. And Wang, H. (2004) ‘Foreign Direct Investment and Pollution Havens: Evaluating the Evidence from China’ Office of Economics Working Paper U.S. International Trade Commission. http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/working_papers/ec200401b.pdf (downloaded 16th Nov 2011) Energy demand: Never Enough. The Economist Nov 9th 2010, 14:10 by The Economist online http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/energy_demand (viewed 11th Dec 2011) Faust, R. J. And Kornberg, J. F. (1995) ‘The Ascendency of Adam Smith over Karl Marx. in China in World Politics Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. USA pp.71-101. Feenstra, C. R. and Taylor, A. M. (2008) ‘International Agreements on the Environment?’ in International Trade. Worth Publisher, USA. Fung, C. K., Iizaka, H., and Tong, S. (June 2002) ‘Foreign Direct Investment in China: Policy, Trend and Impact’ Paper prepared for an international conference on .China.s Economy in the 21st Century. to be held on June 24-25, 2002, Hong Kong. http://www.hiebs.hku.hk/working_paper_updates/pdf/wp1049.pdf (downloaded on 5th Dec 2011 and revisited on 2nd Jan 2012) International Trade Statistics 2010 is produced by the World Trade Organization on an annual basis to provide a comprehensive overview of world trade. http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/its2010_e/its2010_e.pdf (downloaded on 27th Nov 2011) Kahn, E. M. And Yoshino, Y (2004) ‘Testing for Pollution Havens Inside and Outside of Regional Trading Blocs’ Advances in Economic Analysis & Policy. Volume 4, Issue 2, Article 4. LEHMAN, LEE & XU (2000) Law of the People's Republic of China on Wholly Foreign- Owned Enterprises - 2000 http://www.lehmanlaw.com/resource-centre/laws-and-regulations/foreign-investment/law-of-the-peoples- republic-of-china-on-wholly-foreign-owned-enterprises-2000.html (viewed on 2nd Jan 2012) Liberthal, K. ‘(2004, 2nd ed.) Governing China: from revolution through reform. USA. Lin, J. Y., Cai, F. And Li, Z. (2003, revised ed.) ‘The Comparative-advantage-following Strategy’ in The China Miracle. pp. 103-136. Hong Kong. The Chinese University Press. Lin, J. Y., Cai, F. And Li, Z. (2003, revised ed.) ‘Economic Reform in China’ in The China Miracle. pp. 103-136. Hong Kong. The Chinese University Press Lin, J. Y., Cai, F. And Li, Z. (2003, revised ed.) ‘The WTO Accession and China’s Reform’ in The China Miracle. pp. 283-306. Hong Kong. The Chinese University Press. TIMEA GREGO
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  • 40. GRADUATE RESEARCH PAPER The World Bank database: Indicators-Fossil fuel energy consumption, China. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.COMM.FO.ZS (viewed 11th Dec 2011) U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide - Mauna Loa CO2 annual mean data ftp://ftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/ccg/co2/trends/co2_annmean_gl.txt (viewed on 27th Nov 2011) Wang, Z. K. and Winters, A. (2001) ‘Carbon Taxes and Industrial Location: Evidence from the Multinationals Literature’ in Ulph, A. (eds.) Environmental Policy, International Agreements, and International Trade. Pp. 135-151. New York, USA: Oxford University Press TIMEA GREGO