Abstract
This chapter introduces the three firm-level surveys of the impact of PRERs on firms—in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Japan—that are used in subsequent chapters. It provides an overview of the surveys conducted in the region, setting out the key research questions and explaining their significance in the context of the volume as a whole, and it describes the databases from which the firms were sampled and the number of firms that responded to the questionnaires. The results of the surveys are presented. These show that firms facing tougher requirements for product quality from their customers worked intensively to comply with regulations, while firms that have not faced such requirements or not had their products rejected by customers tend to overlook the needs to upgrade their capability. The survey also reveals that firms adapt to chemicals regulation for their sourcing of materials according to the strictness of regulations in differing export markets. This may lead to a situation where higher safety standards are applied to goods exported to regulated markets and lower ones for goods targeted less regulated markets.
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Notes
- 1.
See Chen et al. (2014) for Malaysia.
- 2.
Prohibited substances include lead, mercury, cadmium, polybrominated biphenyl, and polybrominated diphenyl ether.
- 3.
The target products of RoHS are electrical and electronic products. However, RoHS affects sectors other than the target sector because, for example, the final products use plastics that may be distributed with textile bags, or the products, such as electrical outlets, are assembled into wooden desks.
- 4.
The problem of pollution havens is typically discussed in the literature as the decision to locate production process of “dirty” industries. However, with the spread of PRERs, this could lead to segregation of markets into “clean” (regulated) and “dirty” (unregulated) consumption markets.
- 5.
See Chapter 11 for further argument of this point.
- 6.
Chapter 8 also examines the cost of compliance.
- 7.
We visited this tea firm in 2011. See Michida and Nabeshima (2012) for details.
- 8.
The surveys asked firms to identify themselves if they supply their main products to global supply chains. The question was “Do you supply your main product for global supply chains?” Then global supply chains were defined here as referring to the network of companies that procure inputs from various countries and sell the products globally, such as automotive assemblers, electronics and electric producers, garment producers, etc. There are both direct exporting firms and non-direct exporting firms that can be part of global supply chains for the current definition.
References
Chen, S. S., Helme, b. M. H. M., Michida,E., & Nabeshima,K. (2014). Role of laboratories for adapting product-related environmental regulations (PRERs). (IDE Discussion Paper No. 452). Chiba: Institute of Developing Economies.
Hiratsuka, D., & Uchida Y. (Eds.). (2010). Input trade and production networks in East Asia. New York: Edward Elgar.
Michida, E., & Nabeshima, K. (2012). Role of supply chains in adopting product related environmental regulations: Case studies of vietnam. (IDE Discussion Papers No.343). Chiba: Institute of Developing Economies.
Acknowledgement
Authors thank Toshi H. Arimura, Tsunehiro Otsuki, Shunsuke Managi, and Hakaru Iguchi for their valuable advice and comments for the Vietnam survey. We would also like to thank the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry for assisting in administering the survey in Vietnam and all the firms who kindly filled out the questionnaire. We would like to thank the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the governments of Malaysia and the Penang government, especially YB Phee Boon Poh, Penang Executive Councilor for Health, Welfare and Caring Society, for endorsing our survey, as well as Invest Penang, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers in the Northern Region, and the Free Industrial Zone Firms’ Association in Penang for distributing the survey to their member firms, and all the firms who kindly filled out the questionnaire. The survey was conducted by PE Research. For the Japanese survey, we are grateful to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry, to Tetsuya Matsuura for comments on survey sheets, and to Tokyo Shoko Research, Ltd., for conducting the Japanese survey. All errors and limitations in this paper are the responsibility of the authors. The views in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the organizations and individuals mentioned above. The research was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 15K00675 (Michida, Nabeshima).
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Michida, E., Ueki, Y., Nabeshima, K. (2017). A Snapshot of the Effects of Product-Related Environmental Regulations on Firms in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Japan. In: Michida, E., Humphrey, J., Nabeshima, K. (eds) Regulations and International Trade. IDE-JETRO Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55041-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55041-1_7
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