Kyoto & Chirac - Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Tax the Hell out of US Imports

[Spino]

Some months ago I posted a link to an article citing the paltry and/or non-existent efforts made by the Kyoto Protocol's signees to stem their own nations' carbon emissions. So now we have another assembly of the Kyoto cabal and look what the EU puts on the table... the threat of a carbon emissions tax... It might as well be a .45 caliber revolver and Jacques is the EU's duly appointed bounty hunter. Kyoto is looking more and more like an underhanded means of engaging in protectionist trade measures against the good old US of A...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/wo...gewanted=print

I bolded the more 'select' text

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

February 1, 2007
France Tells U.S. to Sign Climate Pacts or Face Tax
By KATRIN BENNHOLD
PARIS, Jan. 31 — President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the United States sign both the Kyoto climate protocol and a future agreement that will take effect when the Kyoto accord runs out in 2012.

He said that he welcomed last week’s State of the Union address in which President Bush described climate change as a “serious challenge” and acknowledged that a growing number of American politicians now favor emissions cuts.

But he warned that if the United States did not sign the agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that have not signed the Kyoto treaty could be imposed to try to force compliance. The European Union is the largest export market for American goods.

“A carbon tax is inevitable,” Mr. Chirac said. “If it is European, and I believe it will be European, then it will all the same have a certain influence because it means that all the countries that do not accept the minimum obligations will be obliged to pay.”

Trade lawyers have been divided over the legality of a carbon tax, with some saying it would run counter to international trade rules. But Mr. Chirac said other European countries would back it. “I believe we will have all of the European Union,” he said.

Mr. Chirac spoke as scientists from around the world gathered in Paris to discuss an authoritative international report on climate change, portions of which will be released on Friday.

Mr. Chirac’s critics say that despite his comments in support of environmental measures, his record as president is far from green. He angered environmentalists across the globe when he conducted nuclear tests in a Pacific atoll within months of coming into office in 1995. He has been a loyal ally of French farmers and their pollution-causing practices, blocking some proposed Europe-wide reforms.

Most recently, France’s national plan for allocating carbon emission credits to businesses had to be revised after the European Union rejected it as too generous.

To add insult to injury recently the EU slapped an 'embargo' on a whole slew of US made cosmetics citing the inclusion of certain ingredients they deemed to be harmful to people's health. Is there truth to their claims or is this simply another clever way of sticking it to major US cosmetic companies who possess a huge stake in European markets?

Nine times out of ten it's always about money.