The legal interface between carbon border measures and trade rules
Abstract
The development of climate policies has gained pace over the past two decades, and their scope and complexity have increased. It is therefore essential to better understand their key features in order to draw a clearer picture of their overall effect and potential impact on trade. WTO rules and case law that relate generally to environmental issues as well as other key disciplines are relevant to the examination of climate border measures: several core principles of the GATT, including the disciplines on tariffs, the general non-discrimination principle, and the general exceptions, as well as WTO disciplines on subsidies. WTO rules are explored for their relevance to climate-related border measures. For a possible justification of a trade restrictive measure, such as a border carbon adjustment, certain criteria need to be fulfilled with a view to avoiding an undue situation of green protectionism.
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Analyses of the WTO compatibility of BCAs suggest that a BCA can in principle be designed and implemented in accordance with international trade law, but the details would matter and differ from the elegant theoretical solution with full symmetry.
“Analyses of the WTO compatibility of BCAs (80, 94-99) suggest that it can in principle be designed and implemented in accordance with international trade law, but the details would matter and differ from the elegant theoretical solution with full symmetry.”
From Carbon Leakage, Consumption, and Trade (2022) · cites this paper as [95]
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- Authors
- Tamiotti, L.
- Affiliations
- World Trade Organization (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Tamiotti, Ludivine
- Venue
- Climate Policy
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-09
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1202-1211
- ISSN
- 1469-3062 (ISSN-L)
- 1752-7457
- OpenAlex
- W2030058646
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 24.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Climate Policy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › World Trade Organization Law
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › International Environmental Law and Policies
- Keywords
- border carbon adjustment, WTO law, trade and climate policy, non-discrimination, tariffs, subsidies, green protectionism, trade-restrictive measures
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