French Politician Nicolas Sarkozy Threatens Tax on US Carbon if Donald Trump Reneges on Climate Deal

If Donald Trump backs out of the international Paris Agreement to limit the effects of climate change or backs out of other trade deals, Europe could penalize the United States by placing tariffs on all American goods, according to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy, who is currently running to retake the presidency, made the comments in an interview with Radio French Internationale.

"Protectionism is not the danger to peace in the world," he said. "The big danger to world peace is if China, Brazil, Russia and the United States protect and defend their interests with all their might while Europe fails to protect its interests."

This means placing slapping a tax on American goods if Trump decides he no longer wants to follow the Paris Agreement.

"I will demand that Europe put in place a carbon tax at its border, a tax of 1-3 percent, for all products coming from the United States, if the United States doesn't apply environmental rules that we are imposing on our companies," said Sarkozy.

During the campaign, Trump promised to "cancel" the agreement, which was signed by representatives from 195 countries in an effort to limit global greenhouse gas emissions.

"I will direct every agency in government to begin identifying all wasteful, job-killing regulations, and they are going to be removed. This will include lifting the restrictions on American energy," said Trump at a North Carolina rally.

Todd Stern, an American negotiator who worked on the climate agreement, told reporters in February he expected the United states to follow through on its plans.

"We anticipate that the Clean Power Plan will be upheld," he said.

However, if the United States chooses to back out of its commitments, Stern warned that the country would face serious diplomatic repercussions, such as what Sarkozy is threatening. It would be even worse, he said, than the fallout that occurred after former President George W. Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol.

"There was a lot of blowback that the US got generally diplomatically across the range of diplomatic concerns and I have no doubt that it would be very significant if the US were to do that with regard to Paris, probably much, much more significant than what happened before," Stern said.

Many economists have warned that Trump's policy proposals could being a trade war. If Sarkozy ends up winning the French presidency, or Stern's predictions turn out to be correct, the European Union may fire the first shot.

Photo credit: World Economic Forum via Wikimedia Commons