The EU Should Remove Tariffs on Environmental Goods

Summary:

The European economy must rapidly decarbonise to meet its climate goals and contribute to the global efforts to combat climate change. This means raising energy efficiency, shifting away from fossil-fuel intensive power generation, electrifying transport systems and deploying new technology such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. But ensuring that companies and consumers can readily and cheaply access environmental goods – goods intended to help protect the environment and better manage natural resources, such as batteries, electric motors and heat pumps – should also be an EU priority, regardless of where the goods come from.  Multilateral negotiations over free trade in environmental goods collapsed in 2014. The EU should try again – and reduce tariffs unilaterally if talks fail.

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