BRUSSELS (CU)_In mid-July, the European Union announced plans to launch its long-proposed carbon tariff, the ‘Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism’. Under this scheme, the EU is set to impose a charge on imported products which generate greenhouse gas emissions but do not face a cost for it at home. In other words, businesses based in EU member states that import the goods would pay a price which is calculated based on what they would have paid if they were produced under the bloc’s own emissions trading scheme. The move attracted criticism from countries heavily reliant on emissions-intensive industries, particularly from Australia, with trade minister Dan Tehan claiming the move was “just a new form of protectionism”.
This week, Former European trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström responded to…
