The EU wants to tax the whole world! Green neo-colonialism in Brussels
European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans told a U.S. Congressional subcommittee on Tuesday that Europe will protect its industries from carbon leakage – or competition from countries with lax climate regulations – by setting an import tax to high carbon, also known as the carbon boundary adjustment mechanism (CBAM). A news that was already known in the EU and that has already been the subject of discussion in the European Parliament.
“We are not telling people to go live in cold caves and munch on weed. Ours is a positive proposal ", said Timmermans, who is preparing to launch the European Green Deal, a broad political package aimed at achieving net zero emissions by 2050. In reality, at present, the Green deal is configured as a huge direct and indirect levy on the wealth of European citizens, but not only. given that the risk of relocation “increases as the EU raises its climate ambitions above those of its trading partners”.
Even if Biden, by word, is committed to a reduction of CO2 emissions, however his effort is not sure if these are effective or make sense. The US is afraid of being targeted by the EU punishment system, for which the White House has sent urgent messages to the EU to push for a blockade of the CBAM mechanism.
The Biden administration also believes the EU proposal is potentially toxic and could undermine careful diplomatic efforts to induce emerging economies to propose new climate targets. Several invitees to the Biden summit expressed concern. Ministers from China, Brazil, South Africa and India called it "discriminatory". On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his French and German counterparts against doing so.
Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan was in Brussels this week to lobby the EU against a potentially "protectionist" policy, which he told POLITICO "how to tax your economy".
Yet the EU is determined to move forward, even if it means going alone. The idea of Timmermans and his shrewd fellow committee members is to force the world to bow to EU regulations, in a kind of green neocolonialism.
“We are open to discuss, collaborate, unite, but I don't think this should derail the Commission from working on the proposal. The proposal (the CBAM) will be adopted in June, ”said an EU official.
In his written testimony, Timmermans told the Chamber's Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs on Europe, Energy, Environment that the EU CBAM will start operating in January 2023 "at the earliest".
The SEA has put in unrealistic, so to speak, environmental goals for 2030 and 2050 and wants others to follow, and hopes that the CBAM threat will be enough to align other countries. Basically it is a re-edition of the 19th century “Gunboat Policy”, but based on trade.
Brussels has always stressed that the measure will be compatible with the rules of the World Trade Organization, which means that imported products cannot be subject to stricter measures than products manufactured at home. This suggests that the ETS system, on emissions trading, will also become mandatory for those who want to trade with the EU. Currently, these quotas have given way to a speculative and financialized market in which quotas have exceeded 40 euros per ton. What if China and the US find the system not right? They would join the WTO and have it defined illegal, exposing the EU to thoughtful retaliation.
A nice mess into which the green maximalism of the various Timmermans and Germans has thrown us out, with a Eurocentric and neocolonialist vision of the world and international exchanges that are absolutely out of the modern world. Among other things, Europe is also divided internally, with a Germany still dubious, given the weight of the foreign balances on its budget. On the contrary, France, in perennial trade deficit, is eager to apply it.
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The article The EU wants to tax the whole world! Green neo-colonialism in Brussels comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-ue-vuole-tassare-tutto-il-mondo-neocolonialismo-verde-a-bruxelles/ on Thu, 22 Apr 2021 10:00:00 +0000.