The idea of climate trade sanctions against nations such as the United States and China has long been promoted by the French. They say it is unfair for Europe's firms to bear a financial disadvantage for EU's leadership on the environment. They argue that trade sanctions would be acceptable to the Wold Trade Organization (WTO), which already allows countries to impose charges on environmental grounds in some cases. There currently are provisions within the WTO agreements for imposing sanctions for the protection of animal, plant or human health or for the conservation of natural resources.
The suggestions of tariffs seem mainly aimed at convincing governments in Washington and Beijing to adhere to a proposed global deal on climate change. However, if one or more countries remained unwilling to agree to reduce emissions, such tariffs seem inevitable.References:
EU warned of trade war over climate measures - Euractive
Barroso trade threat on climate - BBC
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Comments: 11
Thanks.
Thanks for the info Sam, very enlightening and I agree that some form of sanctions should be placed on us. Speaking of which, we are 4% of the worlds population and now burn 42% of the worlds energy (+2% in 3 years).
I agree! Tariffs should be built into an international agreement on reducing greenhouse gases, as an escalation procedure against countries that fail to meet their reduction targets.
Tariffs, when built into an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, like Kyoto, will be permitted under WTO rules and terms such as blackmail are thus inappropriate. Such tariffs should be imposed only as an escalation measure against countries that fail to meet their reduction targets. They will work as an incentive to reduce emissions, in line with what other countries do. Such tariffs will stop countries from deliberately failing to reduce emissions, with the intention of undercutting prices of competitors. I see no reason why the US shouldn't embrace this.
The policy instruments, such as Kyoto and the above tariffs, are there. Locally, a FeeBate policy is the most effective way to reduce emissions, but each country should decide for itself on that. What we need now is a joint resolve for all countries to agree on this. Many countries have already voluntarily agreed and set reduction targets for decades from now. It's time the US joined such agreements. Refusing to agree on reduction targets will not convince countries like China to reduce their emissions. Threats of tariffs will!