As countries consider trade deals to foster development, the question of how trade impacts pollution keeps resurfacing. This column examines how China's rapid entry into world markets in the early 2000s affected pollution through three channels. The authors find that (1) when firms export more, pollution near their manufacturing plants tends to fall; (2) pollution among local suppliers to exporting firms also tends to fall, suggesting that cleaner practices spread along production networks; and (3) because China relied heavily on coal-fired power plants, export growth increased pollution around those plants and in downwind localities. Policies that promote trade should be paired with cleaner electricity and environmental safeguards to avoid the downsides of the Chinese experience.

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27 June 2026

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VoxEU

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https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/chinas-accession-wto-increased-pollution-coal-powerplants-not-exporters-or-their

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