Recently, the European Commission adopted and promulgated the rules for the implementation of the transitional period of the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism. The rules will take effect from October 1 this year and will last until the end of 2025. According to the plan, after the end of the transition period, the EU will become the first economy in the world to start imposing "carbon tariffs".
In 2019, the European Commission issued the European Green Agreement, proposing for the first time the establishment of a "carbon border adjustment mechanism" for the European Union. "Carbon border adjustment mechanism" refers to the fact that some products emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide when they are produced, and when these products enter the customs territory of the European Union, they need to pay an additional sum of money to the European Union, the amount of which is related to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted when they are manufactured. In May
this year, the EU promulgated the official decree on the establishment of a carbon border adjustment mechanism, which finally clarified the scope of its collection, emission calculation, declaration requirements, rights and responsibilities of all parties, rules and procedures for performance, and came into effect on the next day of its publication. The transitional implementation rules published by the
European Commission are based on the above-mentioned decree, detailing the obligations of importers of EU carbon border adjustment mechanism products, and calculating the transitional method of greenhouse gas emissions released in the production process of these imports.
The detailed rules stipulate that in the transitional stage, traders are only required to submit the implied carbon emission data report of imported products every year without paying fees. At the same time, information technology tools, training materials and courses to help importers calculate and report emissions are being developed to support enterprises during the transition period.
According to the plan, the transition period of the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism will be up to the end of 2025, and the "carbon tariff" will be formally imposed in 2026 and fully implemented by 2034. According to the analysis of
dual considerations
, the EU's continuous promotion of the establishment of a carbon border adjustment mechanism stems not only from its ambition to promote the global response to climate change, but also from its interest in improving the competitiveness of products in the region. "The sole purpose of the carbon border adjustment mechanism is to prevent carbon leakage," said Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of
the European Commission. Carbon leakage is mainly divided into two situations: one is industrial outflow, that is, EU carbon-intensive production enterprises migrate to other countries and regions in order to take advantage of more relaxed external climate policies; the other is carbon dumping, that is, high-carbon imports occupy the market share of low-carbon EU products. Therefore, the occurrence of carbon leakage means that the carbon emissions originally generated within the EU have not "disappeared", but have been transferred to other regions. In response, the European Commission said that carbon leakage undermined the original intention of EU climate action. By establishing a carbon border adjustment mechanism, the EU hopes to urge its trading partners to achieve the same level of climate ambition and jointly address the global climate problem.
However, Yang Chengyu, an associate researcher at the European Economic Research Department of the European Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview that the EU's promotion of the establishment of a carbon border regulation mechanism also has its own economic and trade interests to consider.
"The EU's climate ambition has prompted it to fully implement high green and low-carbon standards in the production process, but it has also led to rising production costs and lack of price competitiveness." Yang Chengyu said, "The establishment of a carbon border adjustment mechanism and the imposition of carbon tariffs by the EU is to force foreign enterprises to bear the same cost of energy conservation and emission reduction, so as to adjust their comparative advantages, enhance the international competitiveness of products and expand the international market share."
The gradual promotion
of "the establishment of a carbon border adjustment mechanism in the EU has two main impacts." Yang Chengyu pointed out that "in dealing with climate change, the EU took the lead in imposing carbon tariffs, forcing enterprises exporting to the EU market to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the production sector, hoping to play a leading role in dealing with global climate issues.". In terms of international trade, the EU's action is essentially a compliance cost for foreign enterprises, resulting in green trade barriers, which is not conducive to the free flow of international trade. A study published by the
African Climate Foundation and the London School of Economics shows that the economic impact of the carbon border adjustment mechanism is far-reaching, costing African countries $25 billion a year. The United States has also expressed concern about the carbon border adjustment mechanism, stressing that it must conform to the rules of the World Trade Organization and not constitute a disguised trade barrier.
"In the long run, the EU may play its Brussels effect to make the carbon border adjustment mechanism compatible with the multilateral rules of the World Trade Organization." Yang Chengyu said that the EU has always been good at setting up unilateral economic and trade rules within its own large market, requiring its trading partners to implement its rules, so that it can gradually expand to multilateral rules until it is extended to the global scope. In the future, the carbon border adjustment mechanism of the European Union may be imitated by the economic and trade policies of other countries, and "carbon tariff" may become a new rule of world trade.
浙公网安备33010802003254号