Europe's Carbon Tax on Airlines

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/business/global/countries-seek-retaliation-to-europes-carbon-tax-on-airlines.html?ref=business

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"One of the keys to maximizing realistic thinking is aligning your resources with your objectives." (John C. Maxwell)

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China, the U.S. and 24 other countries are looking at a coordinated response if Europe tries to enforce a law requiring airlines to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions.

The system went into effect this year, although the first payments will not be due until 2013. The system requires an airline landing or taking off in Europe to acquire "permits" corresponding to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during the entire flight regardless of where it originated or ended.

Officials from the 26 governments will gather in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss a "basket of countermeasures" to block the European system.

This is how trade wars start.

A positive here is that the meeting in Moscow has China and the U.S. on the same side in dealing with an issue.

Unless I'm missing something here, the European Union has more serious issues it needs to deal with right now. Some current perspectives on their economy have them already in recession. The EU is encouraging China to invest there in an effort to prop up their debt structure. These new rules would probably NOT be a way to encourage China to do anything supportive of the EU.

The carbon tax issue is a "symptom." The European Union has serious financial problems right now - that is the most important thing to deal with. Creating the potential for a trade war in the middle of trying to fix those problems is indicative of a lack of leadership and also implies structural flaws in how the EU was designed in the first place.

For those of us who never thought the "euro" was worth more than the dollar, we're not surprised at the problems.