Properly designed environmental regulation policy is an important basis for the high-quality development of trade. Based on the Chinese industry-level panel data in the period 2003 to 2016, and considering the adaptability of environmental regulation and industrial development, our study employs a threshold regression model to reveal the impact of environmental regulation on China’s trade competitiveness. The empirical research of our study finds that the impact of environmental regulation and trade competitiveness of the manufacturing industry presents a U-shaped trend that first increases and then decreases. At present, there is a trend of gradually crossing the inflection point, and only after crossing the inflection point can the full development stage be entered; that is, the implementation intensity of environmental regulation needs to be coordinated with industrial development. Furthermore, the impact of environmental regulation on trade competitiveness has a special threshold. Only when the level of technological development or cost-bearing capacity exceeds a certain threshold can environmental regulation effectively promote trade competitiveness. Our study has profound policy implications. The Chinese government needs to combine the technological development level and cost-bearing capacity of subdivided industries to implement environmental regulation policies by classification, cultivate a good innovation environment, make full use of the innovation-stimulating effect of environmental regulation, establish a more perfect cost-sharing and production transfer exit mechanism, and improve the resource reallocation effect of environmental regulation.

The new digital infrastructure has become an important basis for the green development of agriculture. This paper selects provincial sample data from 2006 to 2022, constructs an indicator system to measure new digital infrastructure and agricultural green total factor productivity, and explores how new digital infrastructure can promote agricultural green development. The results show that: (1) the new digital infrastructure has a significant role in promoting the green development of agriculture, and this conclusion is still valid after processing endogeneity and heteroscedasticity; (2) Technology and land factors play an intermediary role in the promotion of green agricultural development by the new digital infrastructure, that is, the new digital infrastructure helps to improve the quality and technical level of cultivated land and thus promote green agricultural development; (3) Labor force factors optimize the mediating role of technology factors, that is, the higher the quality of labor force, the stronger the role of the new digital infrastructure in promoting the green development of agriculture through the technological path; (4) The effect of new digital infrastructure on the green development of agriculture is obviously heterogeneous, and the effect is more obvious in northwest China and the regions with lower marketization level, higher environmental regulation level. This study is helpful to clarify the relationship between new digital infrastructure and agricultural green development in China, and provide corresponding policy suggestions for promoting regional agricultural green development.