Joe Stiglitz’s suggestion that countervailing duties apply to exports from countries not participating in the Kyoto protocol has been rejected by Peter Mandelson:

The European Union’s trade commissioner will on Monday dismiss French proposals for a “green” tax on goods from countries that have not ratified the Kyoto treaty as not only a probable breach of trade rules but also “not good politics”…

“Not participating in the Kyoto process is not illegal. Nor is it a subsidy under WTO rules,” Mr Mandelson will warn in a podcast speech to 50,000 subscribers. “How would we choose what goods to target? China has ratified Kyoto but has no Kyoto targets because of its developing country status. The US has not ratified but states like California have ambitious climate change policies.”

Above all, he says, it would undermine the international co-operation required to combat climate change…

Mr Mandelson backs a plan, to be unveiled this week, to include in the EU’s carbon emissions trading scheme all airlines landing or taking off in the EU, even though it is likely to antagonise the US and Asian countries.

Mr Mandelson, who favours a positive rather than punitive approach, is also writing to Pascal Lamy, WTO director-general, to suggest talks on scrapping tariffs on renewable energy and clean power generation equipment worldwide.