On October 31st, U.S. President Biden and European Commission President Von der Lein jointly announced a settlement plan on the “Trump 232 steel and aluminum tariffs” at the G20 summit in Rome.
Europe will establish a “club” for steel and aluminum products, with carbon content and market economy as the dual threshold. If countries outside the club are deemed “non-market-oriented”, have excess capacity, or their products are not low-carbon enough, barriers will be set up when their steel and aluminum products enter the market of the club’s member states. Members of the club will also strengthen the scrutiny of investments from “non-market-oriented” countries.
The United States and Europe do not deny that their promotion of the establishment of a “carbon club” is mainly aimed at China. When announcing the settlement, Biden stated that the arrangement between the two parties would “restrict the entry of ‘unclean’ steel from countries like China into our market.” The subtitle of the White House newsletter stated that the US-European arrangement is designed to “confront the influx of cheap steel from other countries, including China.”
The reconciliation of the steel and aluminum trade dispute between the United States and Europe means that the two sides have reached a tacit agreement to jointly convert Trump’s 232 tariffs that use national security as an excuse to strike indiscriminately and convert them into carbon emissions as an excuse and mainly target Chinese products. Trade barriers. Compared with national security, the excuse of tackling climate change is obviously better. The essence of the United States and Europe promoting the establishment of the “carbon club” in the steel and aluminum industries is to formulate new rules of the game and use carbon emissions as the main trade weapon in the era of climate change. We must increase our attention to this issue, strengthen dynamic tracking, analysis and judgment, and formulate effective countermeasures.
Post time: Nov-12-2021