The EU’s trading partners have hit out at the bloc’s plans to introduce the world’s first carbon border tax, saying they are protectionist and put export industries at risk.
The US and South Africa are among the countries that have said that the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), the world’s first major import tax on greenhouse gas emissions, will unfairly penalise their manufacturers. Several developing nations have already started negotiating with Brussels for waivers, despite the plans only being agreed this week and set to be finalised this weekend.
“We are particularly concerned about things like border adjustment taxes, and regulatory requirements that are imposed unilaterally,” Ebrahim Patel, South Africa’s trade minister, told the Financial Times. “If it gets to be an enormous defining thing between north and south, you’re going to have a lot of political resistance.”