Carbon border adjustment, trade and climate governance. Issues for OPEC economies

Abstract

The relation between the climate regulation and the multilateral trade regime is a rising issue in the field of international governance. This paper presents the options available to Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' economies related to this. It analyses the option of introducing a carbon tax or border adjustment measures in the core of the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime. It demonstrates that this option is not sustainable for both institutional and political economy reasons. This is why the paper argues that the way to build a climate-compatible trade regulation that takes into account oil-exporting countries' interests is to elaborate a cross-institutional cooperation between the WTO and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 270

Libre-échange et changements climatiques : “soutien mutuel” ou divergence ?

“…On mesure l'ineffectivité d'un « effet de second ordre » du système commercial ouvert favorisant le transfert de technologie et facilitant le respect des règles de politique climatique (De Melo, Mathys, 2012). Tout d'abord, le régime OMC et la procédure de règlement des différends ne sont pas conçus pour cela (Abbas, 2011). Ensuite, comme indiqué précédement, l'argument technologique est innopérant.…”