Members of the incoming European Commission, expected to take office in November, have released more details of a planned "carbon border tax", which could levy charges on metal imports into the European Union.
Products affected would be those deemed by the EU as manufactured with excessive carbon emissions. While details of what will be covered, and under what circumstances, will be included in a proposed future legislative text, former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has been charged with leading development of the tax. As economy commissioner, he has been told in a mission letter from incoming Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: "This is a key tool to avoid carbon leakage and ensure that EU companies can compete on a level playing field."With this tax inevitably of concern to major metal exporters to Europe, especially those that have coal-heavy energy systems such as China and the...