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India expresses concerns over EU's carbon tax

The meeting in Brussels on Tuesday also saw India and the EU agreeing to ink a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the semiconductor sector
Last Updated 17 May 2023, 18:49 IST

India has expressed its apprehensions to the European Union regarding the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

The CBAM initiative proposed by the EU aims to levy 20%-35% taxes on carbon-intensive goods exported to any of its 27 member nations starting from January 2026.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal conveyed to the European Commission the views of New Delhi and sought the EU’s cooperation to address the “issues and concerns” that might arise during the implementation of CBAM.

The issue was discussed at the India-EU Trade and Technology Council’s ministerial meeting, which was co-chaired by Goyal, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, along with European Commission’s Executive Vice Presidents Valdis Dombrovskis and Margerethe Vestager.

The meeting in Brussels on Tuesday also saw India and the EU agreeing to ink a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the semiconductor sector.

India and the United States had on March 10 signed an MoU to pave the way for joint projects and technology partnership for manufacturing semiconductors.

“I’m sure the intention is not create to a barrier to trade,” Goyal told journalists after the ministerial meeting of the India-EU Trade and Technology Council. “We remain engaged, we are discussing the issue and we have a long time ahead of us in which we will be working together to find the right solutions to this.”

New Delhi is also exploring the possibility of challenging the EU’s move at the World Trade Organisation, as it is of the view that if the CBAM was brought into force, the 27-nation-bloc would end up creating a non-tariff barrier for the export of steel, iron-ore and cement from India to Europe.

Dombrovskis, however, said that the EU’s CBAM had been designed carefully to make it compatible with the WTO rules.

India-EU trade reached a historical high, with €120 billion worth of goods traded in 2022.

India and the European Union have set ambitious goals of achieving net zero emissions by 2070 and 2050, respectively. They have also made commitments to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and to promote a circular economy.

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(Published 17 May 2023, 18:49 IST)

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