EU mulls economic measures for US after Trump’s withdrawal from Paris agreement
RT.com
2 Jun, 2017
The EU is considering taking economic measures in response to President Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement. These could include halting trade talks, forging closer ties with Russia, and imposing heavy carbon taxes on US exports.
In a tit-for-tat retaliation, former EU Parliament President Martin Schulz has pledged to respond to Donald Trump’s pullout by refusing to engage in transatlantic trade talks.
“If the US drops out of the climate agreement… for European trade policy, this means that American production sites don’t need to abide by the climate goals,” Germany’s center-left chancellor candidate said on Thursday, speaking at the WDR Europa Forum in Berlin.
“That is a competitive distortion against which we can only protect ourselves by saying: Whoever wants to have access to our market – and the European market is the biggest market in the world – needs to respect the European standards,” he added, as cited by Politico.
Speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said that Washington’s decision to quit the agreement means that new partnerships should be established, including with Russia.
“I can clearly see that America quits the current power game, and the decision on the Paris climate agreement only confirms it. For us and for everyone else, this means that we must move forward and form new alliances, with Russia being an important partner,” Kern told RIA Novosti news agency.
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