Posted on 02/01/2007 11:10:24 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
PARIS (AP) - The United States could face possible European carbon taxes on its exports if it does not sign global climate accords, French President Jacques Chirac was quoted as saying in an interview published Thursday.
"A carbon tax is inevitable," Chirac reportedly said in the interview with the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times and French weekly Nouvel Observateur.
Chirac urged the United States to sign the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which calls for steep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions believed to worsen global warming, the publications said.
France has pushed in the past for a carbon tax on industrial goods from countries that refuse to sign the Kyoto accord, meant mainly to target the United States and China. Some lawyers say it would violate international trade rules.
"If (the tax) is European, and I believe it will be European, then it will all the same have a certain influence because it means that all the countries that do not accept the minimum obligations will be obliged to pay," Chirac was quoted as saying.
The Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. treaty on climate change, requires 35 industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The U.S. and Australia are the only major industrial nations to reject the treaty. Kyoto parties are discussing what kind of timetables and quotas should follow that pact's expiration in 2012.
Chirac spoke before a two-day conference on the environment in Paris aimed at getting support for his idea for a new world environmental body. Chirac's officials said Thursday that the U.S., Russia, China and India remained opposed to the idea.
Let them try it and we will block ALL EU exports to the US.
Then their sheeple will see who needs who.
Bomb France...
Hey Chirac, Pack sand, sit on it and rotate.
Citroen briefly had a Maseratti connection back in the 1970s and I remember seeing one flying around Iowa City. Very strange car and also very fast.
"Sign this treaty which will **** your economy, or else we will **** your economy with a tax."
Stick it, Chirac.
I know the last one, it means "Lemon", Oui?
Renault.Renault, Hmm, dredging ancient memories of French Class..
"Maitre RENAULT ..."----Ahhh, I think it means "Fox".
Well, whatever they are I do not think I bought any.
IIRC, the Kyoto thing was rejected by something like 95 to 5 in the senate during B.J.'s last term.
They don't count because they didn't reject it -- they didn't have to, it didn't hamstring them.
'Fox' is 'Renaud'. Close, but no cigar.
>>>>I guess China and India don't count?
China and India don't get regulated by Kyoto.
That was my point. Most of the world's population is not confined to this.
Yeah I was being snide, to illustrate the irrelevence of French Products. Who needs a boycott? No one buys them anyway. When is the last time anyone saw a Citroen here? :-)
Maybe BIC lighters...?
My worry is, if we get a Dim President, he (or the anointed Clinton) will give in and force KYOTO down our throats. Then the liberal stuffed courts will side with the President and our economy will be ruined.
Rush has always been right. The green movement is the new face of Socialism.
Yeah, they can't even sell much of their wine here....
So do the Democrats.
Seems to me that all those big gas-guzzlers imported from Europe would be the ideal place to start to reduce US emissions -- Mercedes, Beemers, Jags, not to mention all those Italian sports cars.
We can play this game all day.
And will win every time.
I think we need to impose a tax on France for all those burning cars -- those emissions are just terrible.
The (Moslem) gov't of the Maldives was considering a lawsuit against the US and other industrialized countries, now this:
How climate change hits India's poor
By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst, Sundarbans
Last Updated: Thursday, 1 February 2007, 12:35 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6319921.stm
In fairness to them, politics aside, I think a good reason is that so many other places have learned to make as good or better.
Decades ago, Monty Python did a skit about "Australian Table Wines". It may have been funny then, but try a few. Places never really known for winemaking seem to be giving them a run for their money, and of course, there are still the glorious Reislings, etc., so people have more choices.
Then, perhaps in the hindbrain, there is a murmer of "Why buy from someone who hates my guts- Lets see what this stuff is like..."
I propose that the U.S. and Australia impose a Dhimmi Surrender Monkey tax on continental European exports.
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