May 27, 2024 — The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has begun asking EU importers to report data on emissions of greenhouse gases by their foreign suppliers (direct, but also indirect, i.e., embodied in the electricity they use). The first round of reports were due January 31 of this year. European importers are required by July to have established access to the data on emissions embedded in their suppliers’ products. The full CBAM regime, with European penalties against imports from countries that don’t price carbon as the EU does, will go into operation on January 1st, 2026. It will have a major impact on producers of carbon-intensive products among EU trading partners.
Category Archives: international trade
Naomi Klein’s brand
September 21, 2023 — Naomi Klein has a new book, Doppleganger: A Trip into the Mirror World. It could offer some sorely needed insights into the bizarre tangle of political polarization, contested realities, and viral digital communication in which we find ourselves in the 21st century — the improbable dream from which we are evidently not going to wake up. The insights include a recognition that the far left and far right have some things in common and a candid critique of the personal brand that she had developed in her own past writings.
What’s wrong with US Treasury claim of Vietnamese undervaluation
August 27, 2020 — The US Treasury’s tendentious interpretation of the IMF’s External Balance Approach this week found a 4.7 % undervaluation of Vietnam’s currency. It may pave the way for the US Commerce Department to impose countervailing duties (in a case involving the tire market), for the first time in a currency case. See Mark Sobel’s useful update of August 27. The Treasury claimed to find undervaluation despite small Vietnamese current account surpluses and fx reserves equal to only four months of imports. This finding is an ominous step in a predictably misguided US movement to use allegations of trading partners’ currency manipulation to justify protectionism.