Why do so many people rail against the trade barriers erected by Donald Trump and yet have so little to say about similar barriers erected by the EU? Where is the liberal outrage against the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) which from next January will add tariffs to imports of ferrous metals, aluminium, cement and fertiliser, and which in future is intended to be expanded to other goods with significant carbon footprints? While remainer opinion has condemned Keir Starmer and his government for ‘appeasing’ Trump by considering lowering the Digital Services Tax and easing online safety laws in order to please US tech giants, there is a remarkable lack of objection to Keir Starmer’s proposal to bend to the EU by aligning Britain with the CBAM.
The UK is being forced to choose between greater alignment with the EU and the US
The CBAM is a mechanism which is supposed to deal with the perverse incentive to offshore Europe’s carbon emissions created by net zero targets.
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