While speculation is rampant regarding just far President Trump will go to roll back progress on climate change in the United States, Nicolas Sarkozy has fired what might be called a metaphorical shot across Trump’s bow. In a recent interview, Sarkozy, who is running once again in the French presidential race, stated that, if the United States jettisons the Paris agreement, Europe should impose a carbon tax of 1%-3% on goods from the United States.
I don’t know if this will happen – Sarkozy is not currently favored – but one can certainly imagine all heck breaking loose if it does. Environmentalists in the U.S. will certainly cheer. The new Trump administration apparently will only like international trade if President Trump gets to dictate the terms, so one can imagine this prompting some tit-for-tat tariffs. Can anyone here say “Smoot-Hawley”?
My crystal ball isn’t good enough to see where this is going to end – and I’m not sure I want to know.
