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| Europe | |
| Sarko backs carbon tax, EU levy on non-Kyoto imports | |
| 2007-10-27 | |
Wrapping up a four-month forum on the environment that brought together the government, industry and the green lobby, Sarkozy said he would consider shifting part of France's tax burden from labour to pollutants, a key demand of environmentalists. "I want this forum to be the founding act of a new kind of politics. An environmental new deal in France and the world," Sarkozy told the closing ceremony. "We need to profoundly revise all of our taxes... to tax pollution more, including fossil fuels, and to tax labour less." Addressing European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso, who had taken the podium before him, Sarkozy urged Europe to "examine the option of taxing products imported from countries that do not respect the Kyoto Protocol." As Europe was setting tough standards on its producers for the benefit of the global climate, it was unfair for their competitors to be exempted, he argued. "I suggest to you that in the next six months, the European Union discuss the implications of this unfair competition," he said. | |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #13 Whoops! Good find, Darrell. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-10-27 22:11 |
| #12 LOL, they're going to eat their own... "according to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 60% ($14 billion) of U.S. exports to France were made by French subsidiaries" http://www.ambafrance-us.org/franceus/trade.asp |
| Posted by: Darrell 2007-10-27 15:57 |
| #11 I have no idea the US still exporting anything? Manufacturing base, jobs... |
| Posted by: Natural Law 2007-10-27 15:48 |
| #10 Boeing? Catepillar? Micro$oft? Not so much railroad steel anymore tho, or vaccuum tubes. |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2007-10-27 12:55 |
| #9 I have no idea the US still exporting anything? omg |
| Posted by: Whaimble McCoy7072 2007-10-27 10:43 |
| #8 Excellent. This is just the shot in the arm Detroit needs. What? Want to unload your freighter? I don't think so Fritz and Jacques. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-10-27 10:29 |
| #7 Protectionism dressed up as science policy. Check. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-10-27 09:43 |
| #6 Just what France needs, another tax... |
| Posted by: Raj 2007-10-27 08:18 |
| #5 If this kills the WTO, it's OK with me. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-10-27 07:41 |
| #4 .....but any such levy is bound to be targeted at imports from the United States I have no idea the US still exporting anything? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2007-10-27 06:28 |
| #3 If the EU does that, expect complaints to the WTO from the US/Aus in short order. 'Targetting' works both ways Sarko... |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2007-10-27 06:17 |
| #2 From Wikipedia: On July 25, 1997, before the Kyoto Protocol was finalized (although it had been fully negotiated, and a penultimate draft was finished), the U.S. Senate unanimously passed by a 95–0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98),[62][63] which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialized nations or "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States". On November 12, 1998, Vice President Al Gore symbolically signed the protocol. |
| Posted by: Grumenk Philalzabod0723 2007-10-27 01:58 |
| #1 Middle East Peace Process Check. Global Warming Check. What's next? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2007-10-27 01:40 |