Trade and Climate Policy Cannot Be Separated

Roxanne Brown, USW assistant legislative director

Roxanne Brown, assistant legislative director of the United Steelworkers (USW), is taking part in climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 40 U.S. union members are part of a 400-member global union movement delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Read our previous blogs on the climate change talks here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

While a throng of new conference participants stood in the freezing cold for hours, those of us inside, including some U.S. labor representatives, scurried to contact our government, members of Congress and unions from other developed nations to try and thwart a proposal by India.

India wants to add a paragraph to the agreement that would prevent developed nations from using unilateral measures, such as a border adjustment, on products imported from developing nations. A border adjustment is a tariff system which penalizes countries that fail to regulate greenhouse gases in the production of goods.

For the past two years, the USW has been one of the loudest voices in calling for inclusion of a border adjustment system in U.S. climate policy. Here’s how it would work: After the United States has enacted a climate policy and had time to continue to work with the global community on a climate deal, a border measure would place a fee on any imports coming into the U.S. from nations-except the least developed nations-that have not enacted similar climate policies. A border measure would help the environment by preventing the export (or “leakage”) of efficient U.S. production to nations who produce their products with greater emissions. It also would help keep domestic manufacturers and manufacturing jobs in the United States. 

Unfortunately, the border adjustment is seen as protectionist by some in both the developing and developed nations. Nevertheless, U.S. negotiators here in Copenhagen know how important this measure is for U.S. manufacturing workers and industries.

Ideally, negotiators will come out of these talks with an agreement that sets binding commitments to reduce emissions for developed and developing nations. The deal also should include methods to verify data, ensure transparency, and penalize nations for not meeting their goals. A system that does this will help place nations on a more level playing field when addressing global climate change. Absent these elements, U.S. policy must include a border measure.

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