Recently, the China New Zealand Free Trade Agreement upgrade protocol (hereinafter referred to as the upgrade protocol) has passed the domestic approval procedures of both sides and officially entered into force on April 7, 2022. The upgrading protocol is a high-level free trade agreement in line with modern international economic and trade rules reached on the basis of the China New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the China New Zealand Free Trade Agreement). It covers a wide range of topics, especially post border cooperation. As a typical topic of post border rule cooperation, the chapter on environment and trade is included in the agreement, which reflects the great importance that China and New Zealand attach to the construction of high-level environmental protection rules in the field of trade, has important demonstration value for the construction of high-level Free Trade Zone in the future, and is of great significance for improving the level of green trade between China and New Zealand and promoting the construction of green trade system in China. The upgrading protocol covers a wide range of environmental contents and embodies the characteristics of comprehensive, balanced and coordinated China and New Zealand have always attached great importance to environmental protection in the field of economy and trade. The China Singapore Free Trade Agreement signed and implemented in 2008 is the first free trade agreement to incorporate independent environmental cooperation provisions in China. The "upgrading Protocol" signed and implemented this time has significantly increased the content of environment. Environmental issues have been included in many appendices and separate environmental chapters have been set up. It has become the third upgraded free trade agreement covering independent environmental chapters after China Chile and China Singapore. Compared with the China Chile and China Singapore upgraded free trade agreements, the environmental chapter of the upgraded protocol has more provisions, more comprehensive contents and higher standards, which fully reflects the characteristics of comprehensiveness, balance and coordination. It is an important embodiment of China's construction of high-level environmental regulations in the field of economy and trade. The environmental content covers a wide range of topics, which fully reflects the comprehensive characteristics. Several appendices cover environmental exceptions, environmental cooperation, environmental service openness and other contents. Combined with the China Singapore Free Trade Agreement and the upgrading protocol, the free trade agreement signed between China and New Zealand covers almost all environmental related issues under the framework of WTO and free trade agreement, such as transparency requirements, environmental regulation, market access of environmental services, etc., which fully reflects the comprehensive characteristics in the field of environment and trade. The environment chapter highlights the mutual support between environment and trade, which fully reflects the characteristics of balance. The environment and trade chapter of the upgrading protocol not only focuses on promoting bilateral trade cooperation and avoiding green trade barriers, such as "both parties agree that environmental standards shall not be used for the purpose of trade protectionism"; It also emphasizes that trade development should not weaken environmental protection, such as "it is inappropriate to encourage trade or investment by weakening or reducing the protection given by their respective environmental measures"; In addition, it is also required to integrate the sustainable goal into bilateral economic and trade relations, such as "promoting economic development in a way that helps to achieve the sustainable development goal and ensures that the goal is integrated and reflected in bilateral trade relations", which fully reflects the efforts of the upgrading protocol to seek a balance between environment and trade. The structure of environmental clauses was further optimized, fully reflecting the characteristics of coordination. There are 9 chapters on environment and trade in the upgrading protocol, which is the same as the China South Korea free trade agreement, which has implemented the largest number of articles in the environmental chapter of the free trade agreement. In addition to continuing many distinctive and coordinated contents in the environmental chapter of the China ROK free trade agreement, such as the level of environmental protection and multilateral environmental conventions, some provisions have also been optimized to make the structure of various provisions in the chapter more coordinated. The environmental chapter of the upgrading protocol emphasizes deepening cooperation on trade-related environmental issues, while the cooperation chapter emphasizes strengthening cooperation on environmental issues in the bilateral environmental cooperation agreement, with different emphases, making the contents of various articles between chapters more coordinated. Setting the terms of the chapter on environment and trade is of great significance and far-reaching impact The upgrading protocol was reached under the background that the CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the construction of free trade zones. It is another dynamic case and specific practice of comprehensively implementing the "implementation of the promotion strategy of free trade zones and building a global high standard free trade zone network" put forward at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee. The upgrading protocol actively incorporates higher-level rules and provisions, including the chapter on environment and trade. Among them, the chapter on environment goes beyond the level of most of the free trade agreements signed and implemented in China, fully reflects the requirements of implementing the decision of the CPC Central Committee on several major issues of comprehensively deepening reform, is a concrete embodiment of practicing the new development concept, and lays a good foundation for promoting the development level of green trade in China. The establishment of the chapter on environment and trade is conducive to improving the level of China's green trade. China has been the largest trading partner, export market and import source of New Zealand for many years. In 2021, the bilateral trade volume between China and Singapore reached a new high, with a year-on-year increase of 36.4%. Setting up a chapter on environment and trade in the upgrading protocol is conducive to reducing trade in products that are not conducive to the environment and continuously optimizing the trade structure between China and Singapore. At the same time, the demonstration effect produced by the implementation of the upgrading protocol is also conducive to promoting the overall greening of China's foreign trade, which is of positive significance to continuously promote and improve the level of China's green trade. The establishment of the chapter on environment and trade will help to improve the level of China's environmental regulation. The environment and trade chapter of the upgrading protocol not only stipulates that both parties shall not weaken the level of environmental protection by encouraging trade or investment, but also puts forward the requirement that both parties to the agreement "ensure that their laws and policies contribute to and encourage high-level environmental protection, and strive to continue to improve their respective levels of environmental protection". These provisions will help promote China's continuous improvement of domestic ecological and environmental protection policies Improve the management level of ecological environment protection. The establishment of the chapter on environment and trade will help to improve the level of environmental cooperation between China and New Zealand. China and New Zealand have always attached importance to cooperation in the field of environment. In addition to continuing the provisions of the China Singapore Free Trade Agreement in the chapter of "Appendix 5 - cooperation", the upgraded protocol sets up a special clause of "bilateral cooperation" in the chapter of environment and trade, emphasizing "deepening cooperation in areas of common interest, especially in trade-related environmental issues, in a manner deemed appropriate by both parties", This not only expands the scope of cooperation in the field of environment, but also proposes to deepen bilateral cooperation, which will help to improve the level of environmental cooperation. Promote the improvement of China's green trade level with high-level environment and trade rules Under the two great changes of "not seen in a century", China has opened two double cycles and will only be more open to the outside world. Under this background, more and more countries and regions will sign bilateral trade agreements and lead the construction of higher quality regional free trade zones. The environment and trade chapter of the upgrading protocol will provide important and valuable experience for the setting of environmental issues in China's free trade agreement in the future, and has important demonstration significance for promoting the improvement of the level of green trade. Increase publicity on the positive impact of the upgrading protocol. Combined with the contents of environmental issues in the upgrading protocol, interpret the positive impact of the implementation of the upgrading protocol on China's ecological environment and environmental management from multiple angles, especially carry out the research on the impact of the upgrading protocol and its environmental issues on China's environmental protection in a timely manner in combination with the implementation of environmental impact provisions, and actively publish the relevant research results to the public. Do a good job in the implementation of the environment and trade chapter of the upgrading protocol. Doing a good job in the implementation of the upgrading protocol, especially the implementation and refinement of environmental impact, bilateral cooperation and institutional arrangements, will help to promote China's green trade level from the practical level. In the process of implementation, we should design the mechanism in advance, strengthen inter departmental coordination and response, and jointly promote China New Zealand cooperation in the field of environment and the implementation of various provisions to achieve synergy. Actively explore higher-level environmental and trade rules. The construction of high-level environmental and trade rules of the upgrading protocol is another starting point for China to explore higher-level international economic and trade rules. In the next step, we should explore more specific multilateral environmental agreements, based on the high-level free trade agreements that have been implemented internationally and the relevant trade and investment agreements that China is talking about, from the perspective of promoting the improvement of China's green trade level The feasibility of promoting trade in environmental products and services and other topics and provisions into China's environmental and trade rules. (Xinhua News Agency)