26 countries jointly boycott EU 'carbon tax'

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

According to a report, 26 countries, including China, the United States, Russia and India, will hold a meeting in Moscow on Feb. 21 to discuss about dealing with the European Union's unilateral Aviation Carbon Emission Trading System.

All of the countries expressed that the E.U.'s policy of starting imposing the carbon tax from January of 2012 on planes coming to and going out of the E.U. is neither reasonable nor legal.

But the E.U. said that it will make no concession and not give up imposing the carbon tax on airline companies, and all airline companies operating in the E.U. must obey this law.

Authorized by the State Council of China, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) recently declared that, without relevant departments' permission, domestic airline companies of China are not allowed to join the E.U. Emission Trading System and take it as the excuse to raise their service prices or increase charge items. For this, E.U. officials insist that all relevant airline companies of China must pay the carbon emission tax.

"Do not participate in the E.U.’s carbon market trading. Do not submit monitoring plans to EU member countries. Do not negotiate with the E.U. about favorite terms." The vice secretary-general of the China Air Transport Association (CATA) Chai Haibo said that the CATA requires relevant airline companies in China to implement the "three-no" policy.

Regarding whether a trade war will break out, relevant experts said that the dispute on the carbon tax is intensifying, but the possibility that it will escalate to the trade war level is very small, especially under the condition that Europe needs money very much currently.

Industry insiders believe that the world needs a fair, just and reasonable global solution instead of the E.U.'s unilateral Carbon Emission Trading System for the carbon emission issue. In the long run, establishing a globally-unified aviation emission reduction trading system will be inevitable.