US, EU to Talk Carbon Border Tariffs

The US and EU agreed on Tuesday to hold talks on the bloc's planned carbon border tariff, possibly at the World Trade Organization (WTO), said EU Chief Executive Ursula von der Leyen. US President Joe Biden met European Commission President von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel on Tuesday for a summit tackling issues from trade to the Covid-19 pandemic. The leaders also discussed climate change policy, including the EU's plan to impose carbon emissions costs on imports of goods, including steel and cement, which the commission will propose next month. "I explained the logic of our carbon border adjustment mechanism," von der Leyen told a news conference after the summit. "We discussed that we will exchange on it. And that WTO might facilitate this." Brussels and Washington are keen to revitalize transatlantic cooperation on climate change, after four fractious years under former US President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, they outlined plans for a transatlantic alliance to develop green technologies and said they will coordinate diplomatic efforts to convince other big emitters to cut CO2 faster. But the EU border levy could still cause friction. A draft of the proposal said it would apply to some US goods sold into the EU, including steel, aluminum and fertilizers. Brussels says the policy is needed to put EU firms on an equal footing with competitors in countries with weaker climate policies, and that countries with sufficiently ambitious emissions-cutting policies could be exempted from the fee. The US and EU are the world's second- and third-biggest emitters of CO2, respectively, after China. (Reuters)