The best trade retaliation? Hit the U.S. with a carbon-tax tariff

7 comments

1. I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is such a perfect way to both target bad faith red states and hold climate denialism accountable in a global economy. PLEASE CANADA, PLEASE implement something like this!

2. China is currently in the process of cornering the market on ‘Rare Earths’. Many countries with significant deposits of rare earth minerals have leased/sold most if not all of the mining rights to these minerals to Chinese companies. the US wants to wrest control of that market from China and keep it for itself (see $500B Ukraine rare earth minerals deal with the US).

   The best trade retaliation to counter bullying tactics like tariffs and sanctions is for every country to nationalize their rare earth deposits and restrict sales to certain other countries (i.e. USA).

   This would require contracts to be broken and financial penalties for those breaches but most countries have clauses in their trade agreements that allow for contracts to be nullified if it’s in the interests of national security.

   Being as Elon Musk is heavily invested in battery technology and in dire need of a steady supply of these minerals at an acceptable cost this could be a VERY powerful bargaining tool. 👍🦘☺️

3. Do It!

4. God, we could only hope!!!

   This is a GREAT idea

5. Absolutely brilliant.
   Thanks for posting.

6. That type of tax would also apply to all countries, including one’s own.

7. A CBAM type of tariff is exactly designed for this scenario. For those who don’t know CBAM is Carbon Border Adjustment mechanism which is designed to make EU importers pay the equivalent of the carbon price (current €70/tonne) per tonne of emissions.

   This starts 1 Jan 2026 and it doesn’t so called hit the domestic market as such.

Comments are closed.