Russian business offers EU options for revising carbon tax

The RSPP and three Russian companies sent comments to the European Commission on the carbon tax on goods imported into the EU. They believe that in its current form, the project may violate WTO rules,

On November 18, the European Commission closed the receipt of comments and proposals from third parties on the draft of the EU's carbon tax (officially the Cross-Border Carbon Adjustment Mechanism, CBAM). Brussels received four documents from RUSSIA - from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) and three companies: Gazprom Neft, NLMK and UC Rusal. This was reported to RBC by the representative of the European Commission on taxation and customs issues.

Russian business points to the following general problems of the proposed regulation:

potential incompatibility with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules; unwillingness to recognize climate projects of foreign manufacturers; taking into account not only direct but also indirect emissions from raw materials and components; the possibility of using "default values" when calculating the carbon footprint (if European regulators do not have data on actual emissions).

Russia will respond to the EU carbon tax through the WTO Economics

NLMK and Rusal will potentially be affected by the European carbon tax as the first phase of CBAM will cover iron, steel and aluminum (as well as fertilizer, cement and electricity), and in addition NLMK and Rusal have subsidiaries in Europe that import raw materials From Russia.