Abstract

This article describes a new fact, then analyzes its causes and consequences: in most countries, import tariffs and nontariff barriers are substantially lower on dirty than on clean industries, where an industry’s “dirtiness” is defined as its carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per dollar of output. This difference in trade policy creates a global implicit subsidy to CO₂ emissions in internationally traded goods and contributes to climate change. This global implicit subsidy to CO₂ emissions totals several hundred billion dollars annually. The greater protection of downstream industries, which are relatively clean, substantially accounts for this pattern. The downstream pattern can be explained by theories where industries lobby for low tariffs on their inputs but final consumers are poorly organized. A quantitative general equilibrium model suggests that if countries applied similar trade policies to clean and dirty goods, global CO₂ emissions would decrease and global real income would change little.

中文翻译：

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贸易政策的环境偏见*

摘要

本文介绍了一个新的事实，然后分析了它的成因和后果：在大多数国家，肮脏行业的进口关税和非关税壁垒远低于清洁行业，在清洁行业中，行业的“脏污”被定义为二氧化碳（CO ₂）的排放量每美元的产出。贸易政策的这种差异为国际贸易商品的CO ₂排放创造了全球性的隐性补贴，并助长了气候变化。全球对CO _2的隐性补贴每年的总排放量达数千亿美元。相对清洁的下游产业受到更大的保护，这在很大程度上说明了这一模式。下游模式可以用理论来解释，在这些理论中，行业游说对投入品征收低关税，但最终消费者的组织不善。定量的一般均衡模型表明，如果各国对清洁和肮脏的商品实施类似的贸易政策，全球CO ₂排放量将减少，全球实际收入几乎不变。