Retaliatory steps that comply with world trade rules could be found against China and India if they fail to help international efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday.
Speaking before a meeting on climate change in Washington to be attended by the world's 16 biggest greenhouse gas emitters, U.S. ambassador to the European Union C. Boyden Gray said steps could include a tax on carbon emitted by manufacturers.
Gray said it was vital to get China and India on board in reducing emissions.
"We just can't do without them," he told a news briefing.
"I think there are mechanisms that could be retaliatory ... that could be utilised if China and India don't engage.
"You could probably find a WTO-compliant way -- for example you could require goods to have to pay a fee related to the carbon expended in manufacture," he said.
"There are ways you could do this and our Congress is certainly looking at it, but I think it would be better to have an agreement ... and that's what this is all about -- trying to get China and India to engage."
Gray said he believed that up to one-third of California's pollution blew across the Pacific Ocean from China....MORE
