EU to refuse to sign trade deals with countries that don’t ratify Paris climate change accord
Trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom says Paris clause ‘needed in all EU trade agreements’
The European Union will refuse to sign trade deals with countries that do not ratify the Paris climate change agreement and take steps to combat global warming, under a new Brussels policy.
Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU’s trade chief, said a binding reference to the Paris agreement would be “needed in all EU trade agreements” from now on, noting that it had been included in a deal with Japan.
She said upcoming deals with Mexico and the South American trade bloc Mercosur would also include the clause.
A European Commission spokesperson confirmed that the new EU policy would also apply to a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK – meaning Britain would risk its trade deal with the bloc were it ever to try to back out of the accord.
The move effectively means the 500-million-citizen bloc is throwing its trade might behind tackling climate change.
But the policy also means a future trade deal with the US as long as Donald Trump is in office is off the table for now. The US President has indicated that he will not sign up to the deal to cut greenhouse emissions and has said he wants to renegotiate it – a plan most other countries, including the UK, have rejected.
Conveniently, talks on a trade agreement between the EU and US were effectively frozen from 2016 after Mr Trump was elected.
