Democrats Don’t Want Cap And Trade Carbon Tax To Apply To Imports
Senior Democrat senators said on Wednesday they would change a provision that imposes carbon taxes on imports following warnings that the clause in the House’s cap-and-trade bill could spark a global trade war.
The House’s bill contained tough provisions to impose carbon tariffs, aimed at protecting American companies’ competitiveness against imports from countries without equivalent carbon emission controls to those in the US.
Senator John Kerry, who is helping to write the senate’s version of the bill, said in a hearing on the issue on Wednesday: “We have already come to the conclusion in working on the Senate bill that we’re going to try and change that provision . . . we haven’t landed yet completely on where we come out”.
Here’s the problem they face. On one hand, if they slap tariffs on imports from countries without a cap and trade tax of their own (like China and Mexico) not only is the purchasing power Americans now enjoy going to go down (in the middle of a recession) as the price of goods goes up, but American companies that export are going to be hit as other nations retaliate with trade restrictions of their own.
On the other hand, if they don’t slap a tariff on imported goods all the manufacturers and other businesses that would be forced to pay a carbon tax here in America are just going to move their operations to other countries where they don’t have to pay one. Meaning we lose all those jobs and all the prosperity those businesses create. Plus, if you buy into the idea that we do need to cap carbon what good is it to shift carbon production from here to China? Or Mexico? Isn’t climate change a global “crisis” according to the alarmists?
There are no good solutions. This is a lose-lose situation which illustrates exactly why a cap and trade carbon tax is bad policy.
