The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, or CBAM, has taken effect. It begins the carbon pricing of imported goods. The goal is to ensure that foreign producers face a carbon cost similar to that paid by European companies under the EU’s internal emissions trading system.
It will apply to carbon-intensive goods, including steel, aluminum, cement, hydrogen, and fertilizers. Importers must declare the carbon dioxide emissions in their products if they exceed EU standards.
The EU is doing its best to force its extreme climate change policies on the world while it de-industrializes and destroys its economy. The EU is strangling its industry and making consumers foot the bill.
China is threatening retaliation, calling it unfair and discriminatory. They see it as protectionism, which it is.
The CBAM is intended to protect EU industries, but it risks higher prices for consumers, and it will escalate trade disputes with major exporters.
EU authoritarians are doing this because it follows the world‘s most stringent and unreasonable emission reduction standards for industry, and they want to force everyone else to do the same. They have made their products so expensive that they’re not competitive. It hurts European makers of steel, cement, and electricity generators. Its biggest competitor is China, which doesn’t have anything near as restrictive as they do. They will be forced to retaliate or abide by it.
The EU won’t rescind the tax. They think taxation is the only solution.
India is also severely affected.
Indian steel exporters supplying to the European Union (EU) are already reworking production processes, certification systems, and supply chains to deal with the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), even as lawyers warn that legal, compliance, and commercial risks could intensify sharply now that the levy has entered its payment phase from January 1, 2026.
One thing is certain with the EU. Their punitive taxes and fees will continue to increase as countries cave to their will.
The United States won’t be pleased.
In the EU Customs Union, 75% of all duties collected at the border go into the EU coffers. They decide who gets funds.
Other countries will follow
Other countries are looking to follow the EU. Countries like the UK will follow.
In the EU Customs Union, all trade negotiations and trade policy are controlled centrally – so goodbye better deals with the USA, Japan, Australia, Singapore, GCC, India, the CPTPP.
Until now, countries lagging behind others in cutting carbon emissions haven’t faced any downsides apart from higher energy costs. All international climate agreements are voluntary. The EU is seeking global control over its extreme climate change agenda despite objections from its trading partners.
The UK Heads for the Dark Ages
Meanwhile, the land of many of our ancestors continues to destroy itself. The UK
The UK is about to destroy what’s left of its industry.
The government has decided to join the EU energy market as it suffers economically.
To do so, they must sign up to legally binding EU Net Zero rules:
- A looming carbon border tax
- 42.5% of energy must come from renewables by 2030
- To reach this, the UK plans £13B in solar investment
In other words, if a future government decides not to destroy its own economy through Net Zero ambitions, the EU can sue it into compliance.
Doubling down on Net Zero after experiencing the fastest de-industrialisation is like saying the antidote to poison is more poison.
The EU placed this tax on imports supposedly to fight climate change. And people whine about tariffs Trump imposed on their imports?
Woketards ruin everything they touch.