An Analysis Of "Carbon Tariff" Legal System

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the international community. All countries wish to reach a bonding multilateral agreement on the post-2012 greenhouse gas emissions during the Copenhagen Conference. However, the Conference failed to reach such an agreement, only with a non-bonding Copenhagen Protocol. And before the Conference, many countries have drafted their own climate laws, expressing their principles on climate change. The United States and France have showed that if the new climate change framework could not be concluded, they would adopt unilateral trade measures to protect the international competition of their industries and prevent carbon leakage. The two are both seen as"carbon tariff"in the international community and was thought as a kind of protectionism. Therefore, will the two countries adopt their carbon tariff measures for the failure of the protocol? The author thinks that it is necessary to analyze these measures.The author analyzes"carbon tariff"legal system using approaches of comparison and case analysis, dividing the dissertation into the four chapters.Chapter 1 is the background of carbon tariff. It is the purpose of both the United States and France, attempting to stress China and India to burden mandatory responsibilities of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the Copenhagen Conference. Then the author reviews the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its successive negotiations, and concludes that there are significant differences on the responsibilities of cutting emission, capital support and technology transfer between developed countries and developing countries.Chapter 2 is the analysis of"carbon tariff", in the author's opinion, it is essentially a kind of carbon-based border adjustment measures, including the aspects of imports and exports. The hot measures discussed now are border tax adjustment and international reserve allowance, which both impose charges on imports so that to equalize the charges paid by domestic producers for their CO2 emissions.Chapter 3 is the analysis of carbon-based border adjustment measures consistence with WTO rules. From the imports and exports aspects, combined with WTO cases, the author does the research on Tariff Concessions, the principle of National Treatment and MFN principle, "Subsidies and Countervailing Regulations", GATT Article 20. And the conclusion is that, within WTO framework, charges levied on imports are allowed, but due to the specificity of carbon-intensive products, the determination of likeness is complex. Many proposals employ two different standards towards the domestic and import products, so it is possible to violate the principle of National Treatment and MFN principle. As to the export process, the country's tax system is the key. After analyzing GATT Article20, the author insists that, this article could not be used as an umbrella of carbon tariff, it has to prove that its modalities of implementation does not result in unjustified discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade.In Chapter 4, the author first introduces China's endeavor on mitigating climate change, and then analyzes the circumstances around China, lastly provides several suggestions on CO2 emissions reduction. The author suggests that China should insist on its own emission reduction targets and perform them independently. If there is trade protectionism towards China, China should apply WTO rules to protect the legitimate rights and interests.