Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Nicholas Sarkozy, former president of France, who is currently running again for President, has demanded Europe impose a carbon tax on imported US goods if Trump pulls out of the Paris Agreement.
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The primary candidate for the right Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed Sunday, November 13, the implementation of a carbon tax on US products imported into Europe , if the President elect Donald Trump denounced the agreement of Paris on the climate.
“Donald Trump said he would not meet – we’ll see if he takes this commitment – the conclusions of the Paris agreement on climate. Well I ask that Europe is adopting a carbon tax at the borders of Europe, a tax of 1 to 3% for all products that come from the United States if the United States is exempt from environmental rules, we impose on our businesses.”
“We can not find in a situation where our businesses have obligations but where we continue to import products from countries that meet none of those obligations”, he pleaded on TF1.
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Read more (original French): http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2016/11/13/sarkozy-propose-une-taxe-carbone-si-trump-denonce-l-accord-sur-le-climat_5030514_823448.html
This isn’t the first time European politicians have demanded a Carbon tax on countries they perceive as less environmentally pure than themselves. A previous European attempt to impose a carbon tax on international airlines foundered when everyone else refused to pay.
The concept of carbon taxing other countries has repeatedly reared its head on the world stage, the latest incarnation being a UN brokered agreement to impose an airline carbon tax on everyone.
The description of arch-globalist and climate fanatic Nicolas Sarkozy as being the primary candidate for the French Right is open to question – Marine Le Pen, a Donald Trump like figure in French politics, has a serious chance of winning the upcoming French Presidential Election.
EW – Corrected the name of Marine Le Pen
https://olivierdemeulenaere.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/imposteurs-sarkozy-macron-candidat-peuple-anti-systeme/#comments
They’ll need Mutty Merkels permission won’t they? France owes us in UK anyway..for the prolonged loss and damage to trade at Calais with illegal immigrants. They also owe both the US and UK for the defeat of Germany in the world wars. Seems they forget stuff …very easily.
Trade balance between EU and USA
TOTAL 2015 US exports $271,988.3 EU exports $427,561.7 Balance in EU favour -$155,573.4
So Donald will retaliate and the current balance favour EU. Sounds like an own goal to me.
… and everyone is supposed to be ‘shocked’ when these muppets get voted out … or not voted in.
Most commenters on WUWT were praising Sarkozy not so long ago: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/09/15/former-french-president-and-presidential-candidate-sarkozy-states-his-position-as-a-climate-skeptic/
Wouldn’t that require proof that US goods are manufactured with more carbon than local goods?
No. It’s just an excuse to put a predatory tax on the competition, after all.
There’s a good chance that he won’t make it onto the ballot paper anyway. He is behind Alain Juppé in the contest to become the centre-right candidate for president. According to my daughter, who currently lives in Paris, he’s pretty unpopular. He also has several allegations of financial impropriety hanging over him.
It kind of makes sense, why should EU put its own products in disadvantage due to its own carbon taxing?
It’s pure economical move, nothing to do with global warming anymore.
I wonder if they’ll consider carbon tax for China products, too. Although China did not cancel its participation on Paris agreement, it just ignores it.
AIUI te Paris agreement simply means you will ‘do your best’
It is fairly pointless except as PR.
1%?? Who cares? Let them charge it.
The USA runs on 60 HZ AC power. France runs on 50 HZ power. All manufacturing machines in the US run 20% faster than the same manufacturing machines in Europe. It is a fundamental advantage and why the frequency is 60 instead of 50.
Until someone decides the carbon ‘price’ should be $200 a ton it is not going to become more than a distraction. It will cost more than 1% to collect and administer such a tax, let alone evaluate what the level should be.
It would be a tariff barrier. The WTO will be involved in a millisecond.
Don’t forget the volts, US/South Africa etc, 110v/ac, 60hz. The EU, 240v/ac, 50hz.
While it’s true that most outlets in the US are 110v, all our larger appliances and other energy intensive equipment is 220v. You just need an outlet with two ‘hot’ 110v lines, like the standard 4 prong appliance outlet (two hot, one neutral, one ground).
I was surprised to learn standard European outlets were 240v, but I assume they run at a lower amperage then US ones. For instance, the standard US home wall outlet is 110v at 15 or 20 amps maximum (fused or brakered).
Of course, this is just what you’d find in a home or average business. Actual factories often have equipment that runs on much higher voltages.
Breakered. You break a connection, as in breaking a branch into two parts. You don’t brake it, as in slowing down.
In the UK, outlets are 240v/ac, 13a. In Aus and NZ, 240v/ac, 10a. You can get outlets rated at 15a but I have seen them only in commercial buildings.
“schitzree November 18, 2016 at 9:02 am”
I didn’t know that, thanks.
I do hope that you are joking and dont actually believe that…
They have these things called gears.
Well the speed of industrial machinery has nothing to do with line frequency. There might be a small economy in size and weight of magnetic components like motors and transformers.
The 60 Hz is decidedly better than 50 for fluorescent light flicker, but there are plenty of ways around that.
G
you can have a go at Sarkozy all you like, but this sort of reaction is going to be widespread when Trump’s administration start going full on skeptic…
The world did sign up to Paris, they do recognise the science and they do mean it.
to a German Trump is completely crazy.
“to a German Trump is completely crazy.”
…..but then so are you Griff
There are two completely incompatible viewpoints out there about climate and renewables, that’s for sure.
Consider: one of the is mainly a US Republican, political viewpoint, not shared by most of the world.
Just because the rest of the world has been conned into believing things that are patently untrue, is not evidence that the US should join you in your lunacy.
Well Griff if you think climate reality is restricted to Republicans, you are quite wrong.
People who just don’t buy the computer modeled view of climate, that isn’t even vaguely a model of a real rotating planet, and can’t be forced into agreement with what is actually instrumentally observed, cover every facet of US society. Poor and rich, ethnically diverse, every political stripe, and so on.
Most Americans that I know, are seriously concerned about real environmental pollution, and support practical means of eliminating it.
But they see that the green phantasy is little more than a convenient control knob on freedom, and they aren’t buying that guff any more.
G
“they do recognise the science”
No, they wouldn’t recognise science if it turned around and bit them in their arrogant French bums. This is an exercise in pure politics. Pricing the competition out of the market.
If mods allow, I will post here. I do need to apologize to Griff for some of my posts in reply to him, name calling etc, where he has been solid and not abusive to anyone. We do have opposing opinions, and that is OK.
Maybe I have had a good week (I have) and in a good mood (I am), so in light of this, I apologize to you Griff for the disrespectful names and labels I have posted in reply to you. My only request to you is that you study the actual science and not what you read on biased websites. I did my research before the WWW, in libraries, with unadulterated “content” in books. It’s an eye opening experience, soon to be gone if Google have their way.
That’s very kind of you.
for my part, I am conscious mine is an outsider viewpoint here and I do try to treat you all with respect and good humour, with that in mind… forgive me if sometimes I seem short, but I have limited time to read and post…
Patrick, you will note I am at least reading the articles here and I frequently read (e.g) Jo Nova, Notrickszone and even Tony Heller – who I disagree strongly with mostly, but who this week had an insightful piece on public transport I definitely was on board with…
Come on Griff, you’re not even trying lately. Better step up your game before the Big Green docks your pay. 🙂
Well the fact that friend Griif even uses the term ” Climate Change ” indicates to me he hasn’t even though through what he is saying.
The earth’s “Climate” covers a range of Temperatures that is at least 150 deg. C in its extremes, and is routinely at least 120 deg. C .
And due to an argument by Galileo Galilei, EVERY possible Temperature between those extreme end points can be found some place on earth, in fact in an infinite number of places on earth. There are an infinite number of different lies you can draw between those two extreme temperature points, and all possible temperatures between those extremes will be found somewhere on every one of those lines.
You can replace Temperature by any other measure of what Climate means, and get a very similar picture, and yet the global average has never gone outside the range of 12 deg. C to 22 deg. C in the last 600 million years.
Yet my local “weather” temperature can easily change by twice that range over just a few days.
“Climate Change ” is a grab bag used by those who have no idea what they are talking about.
G
Hmm? Firstly, it is against WTO rules and is obviously just nonsense spouted from a moron.
However, tell me one country in the World who would happily get into a trade war with the US? I know of only one who can and is stomaching it, but it is leaving an awfully bad taste and causing a case of the runs.
Put a sock in it Griff.
I wonder if Mercedes wants to sell even one more car in the USA?
What do you think Griff?
Boy I’m gonna miss that genuine French Champage, but the California Sparkling wines are actually quite good.
What do you think Griff?
Get my drift…..Griff?
Climate change is an important issue for countries other than the US
I say again, that they are not going to accept the Trump/climate denial viewpoint and thus it has consequences in the way they react to the US and also that from the viewpoint of many of them, Trump’s climate stance is no different from someone who believes in chemtrails.
you may think they are wrong, but realise there is now an obstacle to US relations with the rest of the world and massive damage to US credibility and reputation
@ur momisugly Griff:
Climate change, AGW, etc is a non issue except for those who profit from false scare mongering which should be familiar to you mind set. Look in a mirror and talk to yourself. And if you are so well read then admit that the climate has been changing since the beginning of time with out any influence from you nor I. The US economy is not dependent on other countries who simply want our tax dollar foreign aid. You are not in tune with reality. The rest of the world needs to be in tune with the US and our consumption economy and our protection. End of story. Cheers!
The recognize the money 1st-world governments are going to give the bigwigs in the 3rd-world governments. The $22 trillion announced at Davos last year or the year before.
“to a German Trump is completely crazy.”
I recall that they didn’t think much of FDR either. Not that Trump is FDR, but even though I’ve never been a big Trump fan, I realize I much prefer a President that the Germans think is crazy to one that the friggin’ Germans actually like. Same goes for the French.
Griff November 18, 2016 at 2:04 am:
“…..to a German Trump is completely crazy.” If that is true Griff, it is coming from a country that gave us Adolf Hitler. Do yourself a favor Griff, and actually do some thinking before you post something like that.
As was said in a post above, if all a “leader” does is follow the crowd, he/she is no leader. Trump, being a climate scare skeptic, will hopefully take the lead and show the crowd why the whole climate alarm narrative has been a costly fraud. When the day comes that the world finally understands that, you Griff will have to do some serious self-evaluation and try to understand why you allowed yourself to be had.
The US did not legally sign up for Paris, this requires an approval from congress according to the Constitution which protects us from Rogue Presidents. When are you going to acknowledge the President has no authority to enter such an agreement and anything the progressives and CAGW crowd says in not relevant material.
Don’t lie to us again.
Wait, wasn’t for the US that came up with this nonsense anyway? Why don’t EU leave the climate circus too?
And how about we (Australians) tell the French to stick their crummy submarines where the sun doesn’t shine.
Citron (Subs). Citron = Lemon, lol…
er… is that under the water?
“former president of France”
YAWN !!! So basically, a has-been and a non-entity. !!
France, where has-beens go to get a second chance.
Just look at Jerry Lewis.
And of course, Trump will put taxes on your products that will make your economy cease to exist.
Any other bright ideas “Madame Sarkozy”?
EU and Europe is infested with ‘magic thinking’ . Its enough to make you believe in chemtrails. By acting as if they are important and if the EU was important, in world terms, they hope to make the EU important, and they themselves with it.
HOWEVER of course as soon as you say ‘I don’t believe in fairies’ – or the EU, whatever – no difference there – the whole edifice is in danger of collapsing.
The EU is simply a haven for high achieving psychopaths with narcissistic personality disorders.
“High-Conflict People, Borderlines, Narcissists, Persuasive Blamers—whatever you want to call them—are driven by 4 primary fears:
– the fear of being ignored
– the fear of being belittled (includes the fear of public exposure)
– the fear of being abandoned
– the fear of being dominated (includes the fear of losing control—control over you, control over money/assets) ”
I have already noted the prevalence of beards in the Climate Change fraternity, beards are of course a display of masculinity in inadequates who dont believe they look the part without it.
Fundamentally we can note signs of deep personality disorder and inadequacy across the whole spectrum of Left and Green politics.
I will be approaching president Trump for funding to do a study on “Beards and Narcissism: The psychopathology of the Left”.
The conclusions and executive summary are already written, but I need funding for the research. People who can draw graphs don’t come cheap.
The EU is important – it is an area of huge economic and political power.
Of course it is!
The euro is the strongest currency in the world, backed as it is by the unparalleled economies of it’s constituent parts, such as Greece, Portugal Spain Latvia Poland etc., all of whom are sending large numbers of their people to the UK to help us attain their advanced economic status.
We in the UK also marvel at the political power engendered by the armed forces of the wondrous EU which can spend less than 2% of GDP and yet achieve so much on the world stage.
Keep telling yourself that, if it’s what it takes to help you sleep at night.
I’ve read that the EU has plunged against the dollar since Trump’s election.
‘beards are of course a display of masculinity in inadequates who dont believe they look the part without it’
. . . or I just don’t like shaving.
Well said. Maybe include the genetic defect aspect of constantly being scared of everything “right” in life. Living in Fear: Part I 🙂 Hypothesis: Half the population is fearful. Since there exists a “no fear” gene, then there is a “fear” gene.
If France wants to increase prices for the goods their citizens buy another 3%, have at it. Given the already-huge VAT taxes I don’t see that it’s likely to make a significant difference in purchasing habits.
And if they do that the USA should impose a new tarrif on all imported European goods. Of course any tax on USA goods will cause an increase in the price that Europeans will have to pay to acquire such goods.
Europe screws over it’s citizens.
In response the US promises to screw over it’s citizens as well.
That’s another lot of voters for Marine. Way to go, Sarko!
Does this incredibly stupid man really think that Trump would stand by and allow French products into the U.S. without equal tariffs? There’s dumb, and then there’s really, really dumb. Dumb even for a French politician.
so he just admitted that the Paris accord imposed a 1-3% drag on the EU economy … nice … that should help Trump ignore it …
its just posturing in an attempt to scare the US into honoring Obama’s signature on the toilet paper known as the Paris Accord … and it would be easy to stay in the Paris accord and do nothing to implement it … it would years for the EU to decide that we aren’t honoring it and by that time their own citizens will want out of it themselves …
I’m reading this while drinking my morning coffee, it’s seems taxes can have lasting consequences, not always those intended by the authorities.
err
seems hes on a roll
right over a cliff;-)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-18/totally-out-touch-nicolas-sarkozy-seeks-marshall-plan-africa
Ban all French goods from entering the US. Never mind taxing them. Just ban them outright.
All the US needs to do is adopt the Italian Solution.
Claim you are following the Paris protocol to the letter, even if people start producing evidence to the contrary. Basically, just lie through your teeth for as long as you can, then say: At this point, what difference does it make?
Oh wait, maybe the election did go the wrong way after all!
Will the French people be willing to pay higher prices for American products simply to satisfy their President’s personal anger with Americans over ‘climate change’? I think not.