Popular Climate and Trade Policy Proposals Expected to Comply with International Agreements WASHINGTON, DC – A first-of-its kind legal analysis released today by the Climate Leadership Council finds that carbon import fees, including proposals currently being explored in the U.S. Congress, are permissible under the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The...
While World Trade Organization rules do not provide explicitly for carbon-related border fee arrangements such as a carbon border adjustment mechanism, various provisions in those rules should provide enough flexibility to allow for them, analysts argued on Wednesday. During an event hosted by the Climate Leadership Council, two former WTO Appellate Body members...
Carbon import fees are under serious consideration by the U.S. Senate. But would this type of policy stand up if challenged by the World Trade Organization (WTO)? The Climate Leadership Council’s Center for Climate and Trade is tackling this unanswered question in a first-of-its-kind analysis out this September. On Wednesday, September 20th, distinguished former WTO...
As Yogi Berra observed, predictions are hard to make, particularly about the future. But that hasn’t stopped critics of Senator Bill Cassidy’s recently introduced “Foreign Pollution Fee Act” (FPFA) from suggesting that, if enacted into law, it would likely be found to violate the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Assumptions about the vulnerability of FPFA...
In September, we released the report Carbon Import Fees and the WTO, a first-of-its-kind legal analysis of how different climate and trade policy proposals might fare if challenged by member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO). These policy mechanisms are being increasingly looked at as a way to address the carbon loophole—the 20-25 percent of global...
There are rules, and then there are exceptions to the rules. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has both, as illustrated by the recent trade tensions over “carbon border adjustments”—the application of domestic carbon pricing policies to imported products. Much of the focus has been on whether the European Union’s “carbon border adjustment mechanism” (CBAM), which...