The developed countries argued that poor environmental regulations improved the trade competitiveness of China. This paper uses the 30 provincial panel data of 1997~2010 in China to analyse the effects on trade competitiveness of environmental regulations. The results show that the environmental regulations have not affected the China’s provincial trade competitiveness. The argument of climate threat is just a unilateral action of trade protectionism in the context of global economic slowdown. As a result, environmental regulation will not do harm to the trade competitiveness of China, but is good to our environmental quality.