July 27, 2009 11:00AM 

# French Folly 

By [Sallie James](https://www.cato.org/people/sallie-james) 

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Following the dubious example set recently by U.S. legislators, French politicians have [informally proposed](http://www.reuters.com/article/internal_ReutersNewsRoom_BehindTheScenes_MOLT/idUSTRE56N1RJ20090724?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0) slapping punitive tariffs on goods from countries who refuse to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The German State Secretary for the Environment has, quite rightly, called foul:

> There are two problems — the WTO (World Trade Organization), and the signal would be that this is a new form of eco-imperialism,” Machnig said.
> 
> 
> “We are closing our markets for their products, and I don’t think this is a very helpful signal for the international negotiations.”

I have a paper forthcoming on the carbon tariff issue, but in the meantime [here’s a recent op-ed](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10313) (written jointly with Pat Michaels) on climate change policy mis-steps.

##### Related Tags 

[Energy and Environment](https://www.cato.org/research/energy-environment), [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) 

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