Category Archives: trade

Trump threatens tariffs against a BRICs chimera

Share Button

December 20, 2024 — In 2023, the leaders of Brazil and other BRICS countries – Russia, India, China, and South Africa – began to discuss the creation of a new common currency.   At a BRICS summit meeting two months ago, they continued to talk up the currency proposal.  New members as of this year, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates would presumably also be included.

The idea is to encourage a shift in the global monetary system away from dominance of the dollar, which has held sway the last 75 years.  This has provoked President-elect Donald Trump.  On November 30, 2024, he reiterated a warning to the BRICS that he required “a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty US Dollar, or they will face 100% Tariffs.” read more

Share Button

Let China Pay the Cost of Solar Energy and Electric Vehicles

Share Button

June 28, 2024 — Lethal heat waves this month hit the US and other regions throughout the Northern hemisphere, including India and the eastern Mediterranean.  June will probably mark the 13th consecutive month of average global temperatures that exceed all observations in records going back to 1850.  The primary explanation is, of course, that emissions and concentrations of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) have in recent years increased even more rapidly than had been feared.

  1. A pleasant surprise

In one area, however, progress in the fight against global climate change has been greater than had been expected.  Use of solar power and other sources of renewable energy in the US and the European Union has risen rapidly.  The beginnings of an historic shift from internal combustion engines to electric–powered vehicles (EVs) have multiplied the importance of the switch to solar and wind sources of electric power. read more

Share Button

Let the WTO Referee Carbon Border Tariffs

Share Button

December 2, 2022 — The most important task in confronting global climate change is the need to enforce serious quantitative limits on Greenhouse Gas emissions, such as the Nationally Defined Contributions which were originally negotiated in the 2015 Paris Agreement.  The 27th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC,  which concluded in Sharm-el-Sheikh November 20, did not tackle this task.  Carbon border equalization measures, including tariffs against carbon-intensive imports from lax countries, might supply the teeth that have been missing from such agreements.  But they also risk advancing protectionism, which would ultimately slow the needed global energy transition.  Adjudicating the fairness of carbon tariffs would be a good job for a reinvigorated WTO. read more

Share Button