Showing posts with label countervail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label countervail. Show all posts

Friday, April 23, 2021

Canada's Dopey Carbon Tax

Canada's Liberal Government has imposed a sharply rising tax on atmospheric carbon emissions.

Canada's Conservative Party wants the same thing by another name. 

Both schemes are idiotic. 

Here's why:

(a) With less than half of one percent of the World's population, Canada acting alone, has no significant global impact.

(b) By imposing a carbon tax unilaterally, Canada shoots itself in the foot by putting Canadian industry at a disadvantage in the competition with producers in countries without a carbon tax, e.g., the United States, Canada's largest trade partner, and China, the World's largest industrial economy.

What to do?

Canada should seek agreement with its Free Trade Area (CUSMA) partners for a unified carbon tax with a countervailing duty on imports from countries without a carbon tax.

That way Canada avoids screwing itself, while creating an incentive (avoidance of the countervailing carbon emissions import tax) for all major industrial nations without a carbon tax to impose one.