On Sunday, President Obama told Waxman-Markey-bill drafters that he likes the vision of a clean green economic future in their sights, but wants them to lose the tariff approach they’re currently favouring to get there.
Finally.
“At a time when the worldwide economy is still deep in recession and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade,” Mr. Obama said, “I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there.”
He’s referring to a provision in Waxman-Markey, which passed the House on Friday. It would penalize exports from countries that do not accept limits on global warming pollution by requiring the president to impose a “border adjustment” or tariff on certain goods from countries that do not act to limit global warming emissions.
The provision was, natch, designed to appease Rust Belt state lawmakers concerned about job losses in their high-carbon industries. (The New York Timesreported the provision was “inserted at midnight the day before the bill passed.” That doesn’t give the full picture. Though the specific wording may have gone in at that time, aspects of this kind of thinking have been in place since this bill was first drafted, back in March of this year.)
Even if Obama has to spend a bit of political capital here, he’s smart to finally speak out against this particular bill’s efforts to move the goalposts on trade. Such barriers are designed to help American high-carbon industries adjust to a low-carbon future, largely at the expense of those who export to the U.S.Should the bill pass the Senate with this provision intact, it would wreak serious havoc on the business models of most high-carbon industries exporting to the U.S., upending global export flows at just the moment recovery is starting to kick in.
But perhaps it’s finally dawning on Obama that the optics of pulling this kind of trick could destroy America’s credibility as a global leader. It’s beyond absurd for the world’s second biggest polluter and the country that uses up 24% of the world’s resources annually to make this kind of move, now that it’s finally decided it wants to go green.
Of course, cautions about sending out protectionist signals come a tad too little too late for this President, given his decision to allow Buy American riders in stimulus spending to be enforced at the state and local levels of government back in February is now inspiring retaliatory measures around the globe. (Canada’s anti-Buy American effort, details of which I’ll be covering off in the upcoming issue of the print edition of Canadian Business, is relatively mild in comparison with the Buy China trade bazooka that that country pulled out a week and a half ago.)
However, given what’s at stake here, Obama’s action Sunday is better than nothing.
Blogs & Comment
Obama speaks out against tariff approach in Waxman-Markey
By CB Staff
On Sunday, President Obama told Waxman-Markey-bill drafters that he likes the vision of a clean green economic future in their sights, but wants them to lose the tariff approach they’re currently favouring to get there.
Finally.
“At a time when the worldwide economy is still deep in recession and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade,” Mr. Obama said, “I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there.”
He’s referring to a provision in Waxman-Markey, which passed the House on Friday. It would penalize exports from countries that do not accept limits on global warming pollution by requiring the president to impose a “border adjustment” or tariff on certain goods from countries that do not act to limit global warming emissions.
The provision was, natch, designed to appease Rust Belt state lawmakers concerned about job losses in their high-carbon industries. (The New York Timesreported the provision was “inserted at midnight the day before the bill passed.” That doesn’t give the full picture. Though the specific wording may have gone in at that time, aspects of this kind of thinking have been in place since this bill was first drafted, back in March of this year.)
Even if Obama has to spend a bit of political capital here, he’s smart to finally speak out against this particular bill’s efforts to move the goalposts on trade. Such barriers are designed to help American high-carbon industries adjust to a low-carbon future, largely at the expense of those who export to the U.S.Should the bill pass the Senate with this provision intact, it would wreak serious havoc on the business models of most high-carbon industries exporting to the U.S., upending global export flows at just the moment recovery is starting to kick in.
But perhaps it’s finally dawning on Obama that the optics of pulling this kind of trick could destroy America’s credibility as a global leader. It’s beyond absurd for the world’s second biggest polluter and the country that uses up 24% of the world’s resources annually to make this kind of move, now that it’s finally decided it wants to go green.
Of course, cautions about sending out protectionist signals come a tad too little too late for this President, given his decision to allow Buy American riders in stimulus spending to be enforced at the state and local levels of government back in February is now inspiring retaliatory measures around the globe. (Canada’s anti-Buy American effort, details of which I’ll be covering off in the upcoming issue of the print edition of Canadian Business, is relatively mild in comparison with the Buy China trade bazooka that that country pulled out a week and a half ago.)
However, given what’s at stake here, Obama’s action Sunday is better than nothing.