by Josh Siegel & Abby Smith (Washington Examiner) … Readers are probably familiar with the concept of the U.S. imposing “border carbon adjustments” on other countries. This has been a regular feature of carbon tax proposals in Congress and a component of Democratic presidential climate plans, as a mechanism to avoid harming the competitiveness of U.S. industries.
But experts are increasingly expecting countries that are aggressively imposing policies to reduce emissions, such as those in the European Union, acting against the U.S. with import tariffs to make their products more competitive, since Congress seems unlikely to price carbon anytime soon.
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Ursula von der Leyen, the newly elected president of the European Commission, has already proposed imposing a “carbon border tax” as part of her agenda to expand Europe’s existing emissions trading system.
“The idea has been the U.S. doing this against China,” said an international climate expert, who asked not to be named given the speculative nature of the topic. “It’s more likely for China and the EU to be doing it on the U.S.”
Book (Kevin Book, managing director for research at Clearview Energy) says the EU or China acting first against the U.S. could be the trigger that finally pushes Republicans to pass a domestic carbon tax.
“Congress would pass a carbon tax not for climate, but for commerce,” Book said. “If we end up on the losing side of a carbon trade war with major markets keeping U.S. goods out, the people in power in Washington will be called upon to have a solution.” READ MORE
‘Climate tariffs’ become popular option to cut emissions (Washington Examiner)
