“You can’t threaten a trade war just because you don’t like European legislation.”
The Financial Times reports:
The threat of a trade war will not make the European Union back down on climate legislation, Connie Hedegaard, the bloc’s climate chief, said on Tuesday following pressure from foreign governments who want the EU to drop plans to charge airlines for carbon emissions.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ms Hedegaard, the commissioner for climate action, said the bloc was determined to work with the US, China and other nations to reach an international agreement to curb airlines’ emissions.
But she also sought to make clear that commercial threats would not sway Brussels, saying: “You can’t threaten a trade war just because you don’t like European legislation”…
Yeah, trade war is good. The best inventions come from the wartime.
The Invisible Hand slips on its brass knuckles …
This is not European legislation. The Europeans have the right to disrupt and bankrupt itself, a right they exercise constantly. (Liberally, some might say.)
The legislation in question is not European, it is global in reach. As for trade war, the Europeans fired the first shot on this one.
trade war definition
noun
a situation in which countries try to damage each other’s trade, typically by the imposition of tariffs or quota
Seems to me that the imposition of unacceptable tariffs such as unilateral CO2 tax on flights exactly defines a trigger for a trade war.
Oh yes you can – in fact, I highly recommend it.