China warns the US against protectionism, COP 15
Release Date: 2009-03-20
China's top climate change official, Xie Zhenhua, calls a proposed US carbon tax on imports protectionist. Climate change and carbon taxes on imports should be tackled in separate negotiation forums, he says.
HomeNewsView newsNews search
Search criteria
Filter search
NGOS
The press
Businesses
Researchers
Delegates
Show all news
NEWS
China warns the US against protectionism
China's top climate change official, Xie Zhenhua, calls a proposed US carbon tax on imports protectionist. Climate change and carbon taxes on imports should be tackled in separate negotiation forums, he says.
Marianne Bom
19/03/2009 13:10
The Obama administration is considering a carbon tax on some imports from countries that do not impose costs on carbon emissions, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu says according to Reuters.
At the same time, Chu hopes that fast-growing developing countries such as China and India would be among the countries that do actually take fast steps to reduce their emissions.
The tax is just one proposal among others being evaluated by the Obama administration as the US creates a system limiting carbon emissions, Chu explains.
China's top climate change official, Xie Zhenhua, rejects a US tax on imports as protectionist.
"I oppose using climate change as an excuse to practice protectionism on trade," Xie Zhenhua, head of China's Climate Change and Coordinating Committee says, according to Reuters. "Climate change and charging carbon taxes in imports ... are two issues in two areas" and should be tackled in separate negotiating forums.
The dispute between the US and EU on one side and China on the other about who is to pay for carbon emissions caught the attention of the media earlier this week.
On Monday, Gao Li, director of China's Department of Climate Change, said that China wants consumers in importing countries to pay for carbon emissions made by exporting factories in China.
The top EU climate negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger responded that asking importers to handle emissions "would mean that we would also like them to have jurisdiction and legislative powers in order to control and limit those."
China and the US are the two top emitters of greenhouse gases in the world.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | COP 15 |
| Country: | Denmark |
| Url: | http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=904 |