The environmental implications of international trade appear to be associated with public backlash against trade liberalization and efforts at greening international trade. Because public support is essential to environmental and trade policy-making alike, we examine the trade–environment nexus from a public opinion perspective. We investigate whether negative attitudes toward trade are in fact fueled by concern over its environmental consequences. We argue that environmental concern affects how citizens evaluate the costs and benefits of trade, and that such evaluation is moderated by political ideology. The empirical analysis relies on a large representative survey and a population-based survey experiment in Switzerland, a small open economy. We show that environmental concern leads to decreasing appreciation of and support for international trade, with different manifestations of trade skepticism on the political left and right. This suggests (i) that policy-makers should focus more on greening global supply chains, and thus trade, if they wish to sustain public support for liberal international trade policy; and (ii) that the public follows informational cues on the environmental impacts of trade.

中文翻译：

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环境问题导致政治左派和右派对贸易持怀疑态度

国际贸易对环境的影响似乎与公众反对贸易自由化和绿色国际贸易的努力有关。由于公众支持对环境和贸易政策制定同样重要，因此我们从公众舆论的角度审视贸易与环境的关系。我们调查了对贸易的消极态度是否实际上是由对其环境后果的担忧所助长的。我们认为，环境问题会影响公民评估贸易成本和收益的方式，并且这种评估会受到政治意识形态的调节。实证分析依赖于小型开放经济体瑞士的大型代表性调查和基于人口的调查实验。我们表明，环境问题导致对国际贸易的重视和支持减少，政治左翼和右翼对贸易怀疑的不同表现。这表明 (i) 如果政策制定者希望维持公众对自由国际贸易政策的支持，他们应该更多地关注绿色全球供应链，从而关注贸易；(ii) 公众遵循有关贸易对环境影响的信息提示。