Impact of Environmental Standards on Sustainable Competitiveness in Foreign Trade. The Case of Poland as a Country in Transition

Abstract

From a review of studies published conceming the relationship between trade and environmental protection, it can be concluded that the effects of this relationship may be either positive and negative. Generally speaking, two distinct opinions can be portrayed. The traditional approach is that environmental standards limit the competitiveness of companies which are forced to adopt these standards and as a result limit their export potential. The mare contemporary opinion is that the implementation of appropriate environmental standards has long-term benefits which should improve the competitive position of complying companies in the long run. The goal of the paper is to present the relationships between attainment of sustainable competitiveness and a systematic implementation of intemational standards of environmental protection using Poland as a country of systemic transformation, admitted next to the OECD and applying for admission to the European Union. In the 1990s, Poland made a huge effort in pro-ecology policy conducive to implementing the norms and recommendations of supranational organisations, mainly the EU, WTO and OECD, which yielded significant changes in production and foreign trade towards a reduction of the share of products harmful for the natural environment and imports of technologies supporting the development of "cleaner" production. The evaluation covered two basic groups of products in Polish foreign trade, i.e goods supporting preservation of the natural environment and goods harmful to the environment. The trends in total Polish exports and imports as well as in trade with the EU and the OECD were surveyed for both the groups of products analysed according to the International Hannonised System (HS) classification.