China Exports to U.S. May Be Cut by Climate Plan, Report Finds

(Bloomberg – Mark Drajem)

Legislation pending in the U.S. Congress to cut greenhouse-gas emissions may reduce imports of Chinese goods by 20%, a World Bank study said. The provision, included in the measure passed by the U.S. House in June, would tax imports from countries that don’t enact curbs on carbon-dioxide emissions. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Representative Sander Levin of Michigan, both Democrats, say any legislation in the U.S. to limit pollutants must include the so-called border measures to tax imports. The Senate hasn’t yet acted on the greenhouse-gas measure.

“People haven’t thought through the full implications of those measures,” Aaditya Mattoo, a World Bank economist and one of the paper’s authors, said in an interview. Read more here.