In defense of a proposed measure that would penalize production processes according to the amount of greenhouse gases they emit, to be imposed on both domestic and imported products, a French Minister says:
... France would press for an EU-wide surcharge that would ensure that the price of both domestic and imported products reflected "the true environmental costs of production and transport."
"When you are competing in a global market with big emerging economies or the United States it only makes sense that everyone respects environmental norms," Jouyet said. "We need to be able to use the trade instruments and commercial bodies to protect European products from competition with products that do not take into account the true ecological cost."
It's hard to say how such a measure would fare under WTO rules, but a challenge seems very possible:
Along with similar legislation being contemplated in the United States, it could set the scene for a major confrontation between wealthy regions like Europe and the United States and emerging powers like China, India and Brazil, which have less stringent environmental standards.
"It's not clear how they can do this in compliance with the WTO rules," said Paolo Mesquita, deputy ambassador to Brazil's permanent mission at the World Trade Organization in Geneva.
