Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The EU has directly threatened the USA and all other countries which don’t embrace the “voluntary” Paris Agreement, by insisting ratification of the Paris Agreement be a mandatory clause in all future EU trade deals. But history suggests this is an empty threat.
EU to refuse to sign trade deals with countries that don’t ratify Paris climate change accord
Jon Stone
Monday 12 February 2018 15:00 GMT
Trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom says Paris clause ‘needed in all EU trade agreements’
The European Union will refuse to sign trade deals with countries that do not ratify the Paris climate change agreement and take steps to combat global warming, under a new Brussels policy.
Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU’s trade chief, said a binding reference to the Paris agreement would be “needed in all EU trade agreements” from now on, noting that it had been included in a deal with Japan.
She said upcoming deals with Mexico and the South American trade bloc Mercosur would also include the clause.
European Commission spokesperson confirmed that the new EU policy would also apply to a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK – meaning Britain would risk its trade deal with the bloc were it ever to try to back out of the accord.
The move effectively means the 500-million-citizen bloc is throwing its trade might behind tackling climate change.
But the policy also means a future trade deal with the US as long as Donald Trump is in office is off the table for now. The US President has indicated that he will not sign up to the deal to cut greenhouse emissions and has said he wants to renegotiate it – a plan most other countries, including the UK, have rejected.
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The EU directly named the USA in a statement a few days ago;
EU Tells Trump: No Paris Climate Deal, No Free Trade
Dave Keating , CONTRIBUTOR
FEB 8, 2018
When Donald Trump took office last year, the assumption was that the transatlantic trade and investment partnership was dead.
The controversial free trade deal between the EU and the U.S., known as TTIP, was already years in development and was a big focus in Europe, particularly with left-wing protesters who said the EU would necessarily have to lower its environmental, health and safety standards to American levels. When Trump was elected on an anti-free-trade platform in 2016, these activists found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being on the same side as the new U.S. president.
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It is in this context that France’s foreign affairs minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told the French Parliament last week that his country will insist that TTIP never be revived if Trump carries through on his promise to leave the Paris Agreement.
“One of our main demands is that any country who signs a trade agreement with EU should implement the Paris Agreement on the ground,” Lemoyne said. “No Paris Agreement, no trade agreement. The U.S. knows what to expect.”
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The USA currently has a $184 billion / year trade deficit with the EU.
This isn’t the first time the EU has tried using terms of trade to bully other countries into complying with their green demands. Last time it didn’t work out well for the EU.
EU aircraft carbon emissions tax crashes and burns
Anthony Watts / November 12, 2012
From the BBC comes this bit of good news:
EU suspends aircraft emissions trading rules
The European Union has agreed to suspend its rules that require airlines flying to and from airports in the EU to pay for their carbon emissions.
The rules had been unpopular with countries outside Europe such as the US, China and India.
Climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said she had proposed “stopping the clock for one year”.
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Read more: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/11/12/aircraft-carbon-emissions-tax-crashes-and-burns/
The EU block likes to pretend they are powerful, but the reality is the EU is falling behind in terms of their importance to global trade. Decades of high taxes and business unfriendly domestic policies have taken their toll.
Like any bully the EU has a track record of rapidly backing down when anyone stands up to them.
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An agreement historically has a benefit to both parties.
If party A seeks a condition that B rejects, then A loses the benefit it had hoped to obtain.
It is as simple as that.
Do not sign an agreement that has objectionable clauses. Geoff.
Oh, fore Pete’s sake, they don’t like Trump’s independence?
Well, then, let them eat my dust.
The old totalitarian motivation technique – “You are strongly encouraged to agree to this voluntarily. If not we will force you.”
The USA has bilateral agreements with EU members (e.g. Ireland). I doubt this will change that reality.
The USA can’t have bilateral agreements with any EU nation as that is not permitted by the Common Commercial Policy. It can only have agreements with the EU. And it does.
The EU common market means that every member must agree on every classification and every other tax and regulatory issues, including what is a night cloth vs. what is a pyjama (not making this up: one is designed to be worn at night mostly and the other mostly at night, so something).
Some people claimed that member states cannot begin even informal negotiations with other countries what they would do after leaving the bloc which of course has no basis in law.
Hmm, we stop buying European goods and instead produce them here… Hmm…
OK.
It seems pretty clear that the threat is all about hard economics, with enviro-piety as window dressing.
The EU’s energy policy is grounded in an AGW fantasy and it has deployed wind and solar installations that have put it at a serious manufacturing disadvantage.
The EU’s threats are an attempt to force other states to hobble their economies the way the EU has hobbled its own.
A Clinton administration would have played along, citing the same pious save-the-world reasons.
With DT as president, the US says good luck EU and goes full bore to manufacturing efficiency and energy independence.
The result will almost certainly be that third-party countries will fall all over themselves trading for cheaper but quality US goods, while the EU economy becomes internally focused and ever more moribund. They’re likely to impose tariffs on US goods. They’ll call it a carbon penalty, or something.
China will take polemical advantage of EU tariffs, saying that they are proof that the US is secretly subsidizing manufacture or dumping its goods.
And so it goes in our brave new world. The US saved Europe from German Nazism and China from Japanese Yamatoist imperialism. And today, they both have their knives out for the US. The EU’s knife is self-dulled, though, from them cutting their own throats.
Yes. The EU has screwed its economy with the ‘Global Warming’ nonsense, and, to remain at all relevant, it now has no choice but to convince the rest of the world to screw their economies, too.
I’m not so sure Japan’s knife is all that sharp these days, either…
Doesn’t the EU have laws against “fad science” that has no proven factual basis?
The EU was established to negate Germany’s economic competitive advantage and punish Germany for its economic success.
Under the EU, Germany, and, to lesser extent the UK, have always been forced to bail out the other under-performing EU economies (especially Greece), which have had devastating effects to the German and UK economies. The Germans and Brits are getting sick and tired of being screwed by this EU monstrosity, and the UK is desperately trying to get out of the EU, and Germany will soon follow.
Europeans are especially disgusted by the EU-orchestrated Middle East refugee invasion, which has caused irreparable damage to their cultures and economies; a form of socio-economic suicide.
The blowback against the EU for its socio-economic devastation caused by: 1) the failed CAGW hypothesis, and 2) the Middle-East refugee invasion will be the undoing of the EU…
It’s too bad it took so long for Europeans to finally realize EU’s incompetence and destructive Leftist socio-economic policies.
Oh, well, better late than never…
EU is not a big enough dog to go it alone. Brussels, the wanna-be bully.
The EU (511M people) is definitely big enough, but Europe only plays small-ball. These people have spent the last 1,000 years invading, looting, enslaving, and killing each other, or worse. They aren’t about to quit now.
Napoleon killed more Frenchmen than any other nation…and those were considered the GREAT years.
Do they even have habeas corpus on the Continent right now?
Most large EU countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, France) have it in their constitutions (England since the 1215 Magna Carta); no idea how strongly it’s actually enforced. Greece is another kettle of fish.
I am an American observer, but this European Court of Justice does appear to have some problems associated with it. For example, the European Arrest Warrant —
The great years in france was La Belle Epoque at the beginning of the 19th century. Then WW1 and WW2 brought the communists to power. The rest is history. My friends always vote for the wrong person. My friends always believe everything they see, hear or read in the press. EG trumps wife is a prostitute. When I voted Le Pen they al but ostracised me. Literally screaming at me. When I said Trump will be the greatest president, well, that was when the prostitute, misogyny, madness came out. Everything I has seen in the French and international MSM
These Euroc-rats now are trying to establish a EU military force. Next try will be the “EU” atom bomb. Mental squirts they are.
“These Euroc-rats now are trying to establish a EU military force.”
I suspect it’s more that every EU nation is trying to cut its (already minimal) military spending by offloading their costs onto the others. Freeloading is the EU way.
Without an Air Force, Army or Navy to slaughter all those hated “foreigners” hated by the EU Nazi Empire To Be, not the illegal migrants but the Americans — The Yanks, the empire is not to be.
Baseless and empty threats.
The most important element in the Brexit is to Rob the EU Nazi State of nuclear weapons, the UK nuclear weapons!
Ha ha
They still got the French ones. But if these weapons are as reliable as French technology can be, so it’s all-clear.
NN
If that worries you then try this. I’ve had to do with two workshop vices from India. Which put a whole new worrying context on an Indian atomic bomb.
The US does not need the EU, or the UN, The EU does need the US for technology and defence. Trump will know how this deal is structured and deal with it accordingly. The EU symbol with the Hammer and Sickel in the centre is very apt. France and Germany drive the EU and are acting like old-time fascists.
Be careful what you ask for.
Elites (I hate that term) don’t slide into communism or socialism because they believe the utopian crap, they go into it with eyes wide open expecting that THEY will be among the chosen few to lead & shear the sheep (have you ever seen a poor dictator? Even in Haiti?).
I hate ELITES as well. I’ve been trying to think of a more appropriate, repeatable word. No luck yet
Well said Javert:
“Elites don’t slide into communism or socialism because they believe the utopian crap, they go into it with eyes wide open expecting that THEY will be among the chosen few to lead and shear the sheep.”
They also forget that as leaders of the “revolution” they are the only ones left who could organise a counter revolution and so will among the first purged by the new order.
Only professional bureaucrats have the cynicism and temerity in requiring adherence to a pact that no member has any real intention of complying with. Words become meaningless, just so much bullshit bingo that passes the form over substance test.
The agents behind the scenes of these charades should be identified by name.
They are megalomaniac bureaucrats. They actually believe that the world will dance when they fart.
They just made President Trumps day . What’s next mandatory pronouns ?
Well at least Britain will benefit . French politicians are going to have their own “deplorables ” response soon.
Will miss the Gouda cheese and … well nothing from France till they ditch their socialist regime .
I think Norwegian Jarlsberg will still be available (much better IMO) 🙂
(Norway is not an EU member yet).
…or maybe Venezuelan Beaver Cheese….? 🙂
Next, the Kommissars will declare war.
The EU are nothing but jailers and bum boys for the UN That’s why the people of the UK wanted out.
I’d be interested to know what the lawyers think of such threats with respect to the agreements within the WTO (World Trade Organization). Many bureaucrats within the European Commission have previously proposed legislation, or made sabre-rattling noises, that contradict pre-existing laws and agreements.
I guess they’re not the first politicians to do their thinking out loud or run stupid ideas up the flag pole to see if anybody will salute them, but at least many ‘normal’ Western politicians are constrained by the fact of needing to seek election on the basis of their proposals.
There is ONE free printed journal in France (Valeurs Actuelles) and zero TV channels.
How hard is it for the globalist “center” (Macron) to get elected?
We in Europe do not like the US being a BULLY and throwing its economic and diplomatic power in support of its “intellectual property” laws (notably some kinds of patents and copyright laws giving almost unlimited powers to “owners”).
So we decided to become to strong block to be a BIGGER bully!
Dream on ………. the EUSSR is nearing the end of its life.
On the copyright issue I would have to agree with you US laws is too restrictive, as they give near perpetual protection. On patents not so much, the biggest difference is most of Europe are on a “First to file” basis where the US is “First to conceive” basis.
Some patents are also ridiculous, like the design patents (iPhone rectangular stuff).
And copyright issues are just duration issues, there is also the ridiculous idea of protecting interfaces/API as in Oracle vs. Google nonsense.
The problem is that you have 27 little Hitlers all trying to show how hard they work. They are in work not because of their ability but because they come from some insignificant little sh hole somewhere in the wastes of communist Europe. They are supported by thousands of little people all paid significant amouts of money to keep quiet and keep their heads down or the 100.000€ /an pension will be stopped.
This is a nasty soviet socialist regime hell bent on destroying itself but not before they have creamed off sufficient money for themselves. Yuk
To our cousins in the US of A….
Don’t worry about loss of EU cheeses – we in the UK (soon to be ex-EU) make 700 varieties…
We also have around 400 vineyards (Oh – didn’t the French tell you that..??)
We also manufacture Toyotas, Nissans and Hondas – not to mention that brilliant British success story – Jaguar Land Rover….
So – don’t panic – we’re on your side…..
And Marmte. Don’t forget the Marmite 🙂
Vegemite for the antipodeans
Vegemite is to Marmite as Mars is to Venus. Yes, they are both planets, but…..
Regarding cheese: what about som fromage de la belle Norvege: https://gff.co.uk/norwegian-blue-cheese-named-world-champion/
Yes, pining for the day the EU has ceased to be.
English sparkling wines have regularly Beaten French Champagne in blind tastings over recent years and they are getting better year on year – they are first choice of HM Queen Elizabeth and served at state banquets.
Stoppit – you’re going to add credence to this global warming malarkey !!!
Is that the reason you became cheesed off with the EU?
Our sock-boy (sockpuppet) Prime Minister just tried this with the US. Didn’t get Canada very far.
Oh, I don’t know. I suspect it will be one of the justifications Trump uses to cut Canada out of NAFTA.
Which is probably the best thing that could happen to Canada right now. When it’s unable to survive as one of America’s offshore factories, Canadians will have to start electing real leaders, not pantywaists like Trudeau.
For decades after WWII, the second biggest economy in the world, after the U.S. economy, was the U.S. economy in Europe – the result of the Marshall Plan. But the U.S. interests were not very conspicuous or well-known. Have the U.S. interests in Europe somehow evaporated? How much of the European economy is still owned or controlled by American interests? Europe’s total GDP is less than 85% of U.S. GDP.
Ok no trade deal so WTO it is, meaning ‘Paris’ and the nonsense of ‘tackling climate change’ can both jog right on. Sorted.
Yes, WTO is UK’s best bet. I’m praying that May continues to cock it up with Barnier’s help and there is no deal and no transition.
No deal, no transition, shortly followed by no UK economy. Nobody can be certain as to the damage a no deal exit would cause as it has never been tried before. It is a guess at how far the economy falls before it bottoms out. Job losses will be huge – car industry gone, aerospace gone, petrochemicals gone, pharmaceuticals gone, the list is endless. Anyone who thinks the WTO rules – a very basic set of rules to be included in trade deals – is viable should ask themselves why no country in the world does what you propose and wonder just why that might be.
CheshireRed is also one of my favorite English cheeses.
This seems to be just more of the same from EU and can probably be ignored as most EU countries do with the dafter EU regulations that UK so slavishly follows. Trade deals of course are the opposite of free trade and all to do with state control. People will continue to trade with each other in most cases whatever theirgovernments decree.
http://www.economistsforfreetrade.com/News/brexit-could-boost-uk-economy-by-135-billion-say-top-economists/
Except when trade barriers stop them, as will happen to the UK once it becomes a ‘third country’.
Not sure if post comment is not working for me ……..