Mairon G. Bastos Lima , Toby A. Gardner , Constance L. McDermott , André A. Vasconcelos
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The EU and China are major importers of ‘forest-risk’ commodities and thus play a pivotal role in shaping the sustainability of those commodities supply chains. The EU recently introduced a regulation mandating due diligence by companies to ensure commodities are not sourced from recently deforested land. However, even if eventually successful in eliminating ‘imported’ deforestation to Europe, the regulation risks creating leakage to China and other markets. This possibility has prompted stakeholders to call for cooperation and policy alignment between the EU and China to address imported deforestation. This study applies the ‘Brussels Effect’ theory to identify what factors hinder or facilitate such policy convergence. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with key informants engaged in EU-China dialogues on the topic. Our findings suggest that, despite political signals from high-level Chinese leadership, it is unlikely that China will adopt trade measures requiring ‘deforestation free’ commodities in the foreseeable future. China's foreign policy stance of non-interference and concerns about its food security are key obstacles. While this limits the prospects of policy convergence in the short to medium term, a mix of market-based forces and cooperative mechanisms enabled by the EU regulation may lower the barriers and costs for companies to expand compliance with zero deforestation standards to other markets such as China, making some level of ‘de facto’ convergence plausible. We also note the importance of moving beyond a unilateral ‘Brussels Effect’ framing to consider the role of diplomacy, cooperation, and geopolitical conditions that promote, or run counter to, policy convergence.
期刊介绍:
Forest Policy and Economics is a leading scientific journal that publishes peer-reviewed policy and economics research relating to forests, forested landscapes, forest-related industries, and other forest-relevant land uses. It also welcomes contributions from other social sciences and humanities perspectives that make clear theoretical, conceptual and methodological contributions to the existing state-of-the-art literature on forests and related land use systems. These disciplines include, but are not limited to, sociology, anthropology, human geography, history, jurisprudence, planning, development studies, and psychology research on forests. Forest Policy and Economics is global in scope and publishes multiple article types of high scientific standard. Acceptance for publication is subject to a double-blind peer-review process.