By Alessandro Torello
BRUSSELS--The European Union should consider taxing steel
imports for the carbon dioxide emitted during their production, the
French Industry Minister said Tuesday.
Such a tax would put imports on the same cost level as domestic
production, which has to abide to strict climate legislation,
Arnaud Montebourg explained.
"I defend the carbon tax at the European borders because how do
you want us to be in fair competition with the rest of the world,
while all the countries that are our competitors...don't have
carbon legislation," Mr. Montebourg told journalists after a
meeting on the future of the steel industry in Europe. "We shoot at
our legs; how do you want us to run?"
The EU has rules to limit CO2 emissions and the steel industry,
among others, has been complaining for years that such legislation
harms its international competitiveness.
France had already raised the possibility of a tax on the carbon
emissions produced while making the steel imported to the EU some
years ago, but the proposal was put in the drawer because of its
complexity.
Write to Alessandro Torello at
alessandro.torello@dowjones.com
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