The Trump administration has upended what it calls “blatantly unfair” talks to set a carbon tax on international shipping and has vowed "reciprocal measures" to shield U.S. ships from any fees, according to a letter seen by POLITICO.
The International Maritime Organization's Maritime Environmental Protection Conference (MEPC) is taking place in London this week and aims to reach a deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from shipping.
The U.S. letter aims to block the process.
It was circulated to many embassies of the other countries in attendance by the U.S. government. It was seen by POLITICO, having been obtained by an industry group via a national delegation, and was confirmed by other participants in the talks.
The letter stated: “President Trump has made it clear that the U.S. will not accept any international environmental agreement that unduly or unfairly burdens the U.S. or the interest of the American people.”
The debate at the MEPC is whether to tax shipping emissions through a fuel standard (a carbon credits trading scheme) or a universal levy (a flat-rate tax on emissions).
However, the U.S. opposes any carbon tax at all. “Accordingly, we must be clear the U.S. rejects any and all efforts to impose economic measures against its ships based on GHG emissions or fuel choice,” the letter said.
Posted by John3262005
2 Comments
Wait, I thought shipping was bad and we should be making everything locally? If you’re gonna blow up global trade why do you care about shipping?
God damn this motherfucker is so fucking stupid.
Also, what ships? Like the US even have a commercial shipping fleet any more thanks to the Jones Act.
Good plan, Trump taxes shipping to the US and they’ll drop taxes shipping to each other. They’ll free trade with each other and we’ll get auturkey.