U.S. and European Union trade officials said this week that the EU should not use environmental concerns as a pretext for imposing protectionist trade policies. But other EU officials said import measures could be imposed to protect European manufacturers required to comply with tougher environmental standards.
The EU released Jan. 23 a wide-ranging plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the region by one-fifth by 2020. To help European industries that would face tougher and costlier environmental rules than their foreign competitors under this plan, European officials such as European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have proposed to implement tariff increases or other measures against imports from countries whose standards are not as high.
But other European officials, including EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and British Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks, have publicly disagreed with this idea. “I don’t believe trade restrictions are the way forward to combat climate change,” Mandelson said. Such measures would be a “disincentive to negotiations” on a possible global agreement on reducing carbon emissions, he added. According to Reuters, Wicks added that London is “against any measures which might look like trade barriers” and that “there is always the danger that the protectionists in Europe … could use this as a secret weapon … to bring about protectionism.” Some observers say import tariffs would also likely be challenged at the WTO.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, who discussed this and other issues with Mandelson in Brussels this week, pointed out that opening up trade could be an incentive to promote environmental change. Trade should be used “as a positive contributor to environmental causes” and not as “an excuse for trade protectionism,” she said. Otherwise this issue could become another environment-related clash between the U.S. and EU, following the two trading partners’ long-running conflict over genetically modified products and an emerging dispute over U.S. support for its biofuel industry.
World Trade/Interactive
