[ It is nice that Union's are good for something. But on reading this

[ It is nice that Union's are good for something. But on reading this
it seems they actually serve a very useful purpose. The Eco-idiots can waste their resource pushing for this nonsense that CO2 is harmful
and then the labor unions can use their power to convince congress that
anything that moves jobs away is harmful and must not be allowed.

Jack ]



OBAMA'S CLIMATE PLAN MAY TRIGGER TRADE WAR WITH CHINA, INDIA

Bloomberg, 20 February 2009 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aHscSU9C.1F8&refer=c
anada

By Mark Drajem and Catherine Dodge

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama's plans to limit
greenhouse-gas emissions may be stymied by the specter of an
international trade war.
U.S. Steel Corp., American Electric Power Co. and the AFL- CIO, the
largest U.S. federation of labor unions, are all pressing lawmakers for
protection against imports from countries that won't have to bear the
costs of any new measures to curb global warming.
The companies say fees might be needed to prevent price- undercutting by
manufacturers in countries that won't match U.S. climate-change
standards. Lobbying groups for exporters such as Microsoft Corp. counter
that imposing penalties on imports may violate World Trade Organization
rules and spark retaliation by China and other nations.
"Climate change is going to be the big issue of the next year, and no
one has really grappled with the trade aspects," said Jake Colvin, vice
president at the Washington-based National Foreign Trade Council, whose
members include Caterpillar Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Microsoft. The
idea of assessing fees on imports is "alarming," he said.
Obama says he wants to cut carbon-dioxide emissions, which contribute to
global warming, by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. "This is a
worldwide issue that we are going to have to confront," Obama said in
Ottawa yesterday.
The cap-and-trade program favored by the president would set limits on
greenhouse-gas emissions and let companies trade pollution allowances on
a market.
Kyoto Protocol
The international trade implications may trip up efforts to pass
legislation this year, just as they helped scuttle U.S. acceptance of
the Kyoto accord on global warming, said Kevin Dempsey, a lawyer at
Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP in Washington. "This is the heart of the debate that stopped the Kyoto Protocol,"
Dempsey said in an interview. Even if Congress decides it wants to
impose import fees, figuring out how to calculate them would be
complicated, he said.
The U.S. didn't join the Kyoto Protocol, the only international
agreement to stem climate change, after the Senate in 1997 unanimously
passed a resolution expressing opposition because it didn't include
requirements on developing countries.
China and India so far have resisted international limits, as did the
U.S. under President George W. Bush. If China and India don't agree to
pollution-reduction targets, their companies would have a pricing
advantage over U.S. manufacturers that take on the added costs of
emissions targets, said Tom Conway, vice president of the United
Steelworkers union.
'Huge' Issue
New greenhouse-gas limits might also prompt U.S. manufacturers to move
operations to China and continue emitting pollution, hurting the
American economy and "undermining the purpose of the legislation," he
said.
Without levying fees on carbon-intensive imports, the U.S. might lose 1
million factory jobs, said John Surma, chief executive officer of
Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel.
"The issue of global competition is huge," Surma told the Congressional
Steel Caucus on Feb. 4. "If you don't take care of the international
aspect, you put us out of business."
Dan DiMicco, CEO of Charlotte, North Carolina-based steelmaker Nucor
Corp., told the same panel that his company had planned to build a $3
billion iron-making plant in Louisiana. The weak U.S. economy and
potential limits on greenhouse-gas emissions "put that investment in
doubt," DiMicco said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest lobbying group for American
business, says charges on imports, termed border adjustments, may hurt
U.S. producers by raising the price for foreign-made components and
creating a backlash against American exports.
'Border Adjustments'
"We're skeptical," said Christopher Wenk, the top trade lobbyist for the
chamber. "There is a domino effect here; it will have an impact on
importers and exporters."
Meeting the demands of U.S. steelmakers and unions may prompt objections
from the European Union and Canada, which lobbied against a "Buy
American" provision in the stimulus legislation that says U.S. goods
must be used for infrastructure projects.
"I don't see border adjustments or tariffs as one of the things we
should be contemplating," said John Bruton, the European Commission's
ambassador to the U.S.
Ten Democratic senators sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid of
Nevada last year citing the need to protect U.S. manufacturers among
their concerns with climate-change legislation that was then under
consideration.
"The cost of cleaning up the environment can't be borne only by
Americans and have the Chinese not have to bear those costs," Senator
Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who signed the letter, said in an interview. "If
there's not a border adjustment, I don't know how we pass climate
change."
Incentive for Limits
Climate-change legislation sponsored last year by Senator Joe Lieberman,
a Connecticut independent, and former Senator John Warner, a Virginia
Republican, included a provision that required importers of
carbon-intensive products made in countries without similar regulations
to buy allowances at the border after a period of negotiations. The bill
failed in the full Senate.
In addition to protecting U.S. industry, such provisions are designed to
use access to the American market, the world's largest, as an incentive
for other countries to limit emissions, said Andrew Shoyer, a lawyer at
Sidley Austin LLP in Washington.
Democrat Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, a member of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, told steelmakers this month that he would set up
private meetings with that panel's chairman, Democrat Henry Waxman of
California, to make sure climate legislation doesn't harm them.
"If the actions we take simply transfer manufacturing to Brazil and
China, then we haven't accomplished much," Doyle said.
Copyright 2009, Bloomberg

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