Abstract: Based on the nonlinear panel data in China from 2004 to 2019, the mechanism of agricultural products trade liberalization on China's agricultural carbon emissions was empirically tested. The results showed that the structural effect caused by the scale effect, technology effect and capital-labor ratio improved the level of agricultural carbon emissions in China, appearing abnormal “positive technique effect”. Trade-induced structural effects lowered the level of agricultural carbon emissions in China. On the whole, trade liberalization of agricultural products made the level of agricultural carbon emissions rising. China was a deficit country in agricultural products trade, and there was an inverted “U” shaped environmental Kuznets curve. China's agriculture basically reached a “carbon peak” in 2017.

Key words: trade liberalization of agricultural products, agricultural carbon emissions, agricultural “carbon peak”, environmental Kuznets curve