International Economic Law and Policy Blog

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Trade and Environment

118 posts

Can Tariffs Help Bring Down Carbon Emissions? Maybe, But Probably Not Under Current Proposals

Recently, I came across two arguments for the U.S. and EU to use tariffs as penalties designed to bring down carbon emissions: * Senator Sheldon Whitehouse suggested that "laggards and high polluting countries [will be] forced to step up and comply by virtue of the economic pressure on them

More Hurdles for the "Green Steel Deal"

This is from a CFR blog post by Jennifer Hillman and Alex Tippett on the "green steel deal": For the proposed U.S.-EU agreement on green steel and aluminum be successful, however, it will have to avoid several potential pitfalls. First, the deal cannot devolve into a

Some Comments on a New Foreign Affairs Piece Discussing Trade and Climate Change

All these recent debates I've had with Tim Meyer and Todd Tucker on trade policy and climate change have me thinking about these issues generally, and I had a few comments on a new piece in Foreign Affairs by political science professor Jessica Green that touches on all

More on the U.S.-EU Section 232 Deal Affecting Carbon Emissions: A Response to the Response by Tim and Todd

Thanks to Tim Meyer and Todd Tucker for taking the time to respond to my questions about how the U.S.-EU Section 232 deal could lower carbon emissions. Not surprisingly, their response raises more questions for me, and I am still skeptical that this new arrangement will lead to

How Exactly Would the U.S.-EU Section 232 Deal Affect Carbon Emissions?

I've seen some talk on Twitter and elsewhere about the "Carbon-Based Sectoral Arrangement on Steel and Aluminum Trade" part of the U.S.-EU Section 232 agreement, as the White House referred to it, with people seeming to suggest that this is a big deal (a

New World Trade Review Written/Video Debate on Carbon Border Adjustments

Many of you know Mona Paulsen as the Queen of Trade Law Archival Research, but she is also a scholarly tech innovator, having convinced the stodgy folks at Cambridge University Press to do a video discussion for a World Trade Review written debate series on carbon border adjustments. In this

Guest Post: Will the EU CBAM Cover More Than What You Think? Complex Goods, System Boundaries, and Circumvention Under the Commission’s CBAM Proposal

This is a guest post from trade lawyers Cándido García Molyneux & Paul Mertenskötter: On July 14, the European Commission presented its legislative proposal for a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (“CBAM”). This long-anticipated tool is intended to make importers pay for the greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions embedded in the covered

Per Capita Emissions vs. Manufacturing Emissions: Why Not Do Both?

In the Hindustan Times, trade lawyer RV Anuradha has an op-ed entitled "EU’s CBAM, US Carbon Tax undermine international climate and trade laws." What particularly interested me was the description of an alternative focus for climate change mitigation efforts. Whereas the EU and U.S. are emphasizing

Krugman on Carbon Tariffs

Paul Krugman has a new op-ed on carbon tariffs that made sense in parts but puzzled me in other parts. Here is the part that I thought made sense: ... You can think of national policies designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions as ways to induce a country’s residents to

CBAM enters with a BANG: the European Commission puts forth its carbon border adjustment mechanism proposal

This is a guest post by trade lawyer Victor Crochet of Van Bael & Bellis The European Commission just unveiled its proposal for a carbon border adjustment mechanism (“CBAM”) (available here). The proposal provides for a new system where importers must purchase CBAM certificates to cover direct and indirect carbon