| Sarkozy mentioned no names, but any such levy is bound to be targeted at imports from the United States and Australia |
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday called for a national "carbon tax" on global-warming pollutants and a European levy on imports from countries outside the Kyoto Protocol. Sarkozy mentioned no names, but any such levy is bound to be targeted at imports from the United States and Australia, the only advanced economies that remain outside the UN's landmark pact on greenhouse-gas emissions.
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. |