Reuters reports:
Proposals to impose "carbon tariffs" on imported products will violate the rules of the World Trade Organization as well as the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol, China's Ministry of Commerce said.
In a statement posted on its website, the ministry said collecting carbon duties from foreign products would enable developed countries to "protect trade in the name of protecting the environment."
"This will not help strengthen confidence that the international community can cooperate to handle the (economic) crisis, it also will not help any country's endeavors during the climate change negotiations, and China is strongly opposed to it," the statement said.
I looked for the statement on the Ministry of Commerce site, but could not find it. What I wonder is the following: Is China opposed to any and all carbon tariffs, or just those implemented in a way that imposes an unfair burden on foreign companies? That is, if a WTO Member could write a carbon emission measure in a way that imposed equal costs on foreign and domestic companies (using tariffs for foreign companies), would China be OK with it? Based on the quote above, my guess is they would not, but I wasn't completely sure.
