Sarkozy fights for carbon border tax

French president Nicolas Sarkozy is continuing his fight to introduce a carbon tax at the borders of the European Union.

Sarkozy claims the carbon border tax will encourage the growth of environmentally friendly products and change behaviour, taxnews.com reported.

He does not intend to impose a carbon fee on industry and at the same time allow France to import products from countries that do nothing to tackle the effects of climate change.

“I am for free trade but I do not see why we should impose environmental constraints on our companies if we agree to import goods manufactured in countries lacking environmental constraints,” he said.

The proposed tax was rejected last year by the country's constitutional council with a new version to be published this week.

Last year Sarkozy said he was unhappy charging French companies carbon tax while imported goods did not have to pay a levy.

Further reading:

PBR 09: Climate Change Levy increased