The Impact of Environmental Policies on the Status of Global Environmental Goods Trade Networks

ABSTRACT Against the backdrop of the global green transition and the rapid expansion of environmental goods trade, environmental policies are reshaping economies' structural positions in the global environmental goods trade network. Based on the WTO Environmental Database, this study constructs environmental policy depth and intensity indicators at the country‐year and country‐product‐year levels. Using UN Comtrade data, it applies a directed and weighted complex network approach to examine the evolution of the global environmental goods trade network from 2009 to 2024, and further investigates the impact of environmental policies on network position and the underlying mechanisms. The results show that the global environmental goods trade network has become increasingly connected and exhibits a clear core‐semi‐periphery‐periphery structure. Empirical evidence indicates that environmental policy depth significantly increases an economy's eigenvector centrality, suggesting that environmental policies enhance its connectivity and influence in the global green trade network. Further analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity in these network effects: subsidy‐based policies depend more on an economy's environmental performance, institutional quality, and technological foundation, whereas the effects of regulatory policies rely more on productivity levels and manufacturing capacity. Environmentally preferable products and environmental management products also respond differently to environmental policies. The mechanism analysis shows that the transformation of environmental policies into trade network advantages is gradual and conditional, and the short‐term reinforcing effects of technological innovation and environmental product upgrading are unstable. This study demonstrates that environmental policies do not automatically translate into environmental goods trade advantages; their effects depend on policy instruments, national capacity, industrial foundations, and dynamic transformation processes.